Alternative Energy: Tornados

Weather systems, as the world has recently been reminded, have awesome power. The energy released by a large hurricane can exceed the energy consumption of the human race for a whole year, and even an average tornado has a power similar to that of a large power station. If only mankind could harness that energy, rather than being at its mercy. Louis Michaud, a Canadian engineer who works at a large oil company, believes he has devised a way to do just that, by generating artificial whirlwinds that can be controlled and harnessed. He calls his invention the “atmospheric vortex engine”.

I have always wondered if there was a way to tap the energy of a hurricane. If you could do so, you could kill two birds with one stone. First, you would generate a ton of energy. Second, you would deprive the hurricane of its power and therefore its destructive energy. Less destruction, more power from a renewable source. Oh, if it were only so easy.

This guy is trying to build a stationary tornado to generate energy. Very interesting. More in the link below.

Via The Economist