The Solar tower was a beam that was supported by two-outer buildings. It was built by Tess Mercer and LuthorCorp, with the help of Major Zod and R.A.O. Incorporated.

According to Tess, the Solar Tower was the world's first completely self-sustaining tower; one tower could generate enough clean energy to power all of Metropolis.^[1]

Powers and Abilities

The solar tower's main use for Tess Mercer was to create better, cleaner energy for the planet and make the world greener. Major Zod, on the other hand, intended to use the tower to turn the yellow sun red to give himself and his fellow Kandorians their abilities that would make them gods among men. The process for this required the use of the LuthorCorp satellites. Once the tower collected the sun's radiation and turned it from yellow to red, it would then send the radiation to the satellites which would send the radiation back down the earth and fuel the Kandorians' powers.

Vulnerabilities

The solar tower was easily destroyed by Clark Kent's heat vision.

Appearances

• Season Nine:
  • Savior - The solar towers are clearly seen in Lois Lane's vision; one of the towers is projecting a red beam into the sky.
  • Crossfire - A holographic version of the solar towers is presented by Tess to a room full of people.
  • Idol - The solar towers are clearly seen in Lois Lane's vision, like in Savior.
  • Pandora - The solar towers are shown to exist in Metropolis during Lois Lane's trip to the future, and are used in combination with Luthorcorp satellites to convert the rays of the yellow sun into those of a red sun, giving the Kandorians their Kryptonian powers. They are disabled by Chloe Sullivan by way of a computer virus.
  • Disciple - The solar tower is shown nearly completed towards the end of the episode.
  • Persuasion - Clark uses his heat vision to destroy the solar tower.

Notes

• In the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Solar Power" super villain Luminus hijacked the controls to an array of LexCorp satellites and used them to project a force field over the Earth; the sun is still yellow, but only the red rays are getting through the field, effectively making a red sun like that of Krypton causing Superman to be powerless as a result.
• In the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies battle with Metallo, you can see a building that looks remarkably similar to the Pandora tower in the background when Superman crashes in the graveyard.
• The solar tower bears a resemblance to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ^{[picture needed]}

Quotes

References