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Mini-Tornadoes For Generating Electricity

Posted by Soulskill on from the mad-scientist's-green-revolution dept.

cylonlover writes "Tornadoes generally evoke the destructive force of nature at its most awesome. However, what if all that power could be harnessed to produce cheaper and more efficient electricity? This is just what Canadian engineer Louis Michaud proposes to achieve, with an invention dubbed the 'Atmospheric Vortex Engine' (or AVE). It works by introducing warm air into a circular station, whereupon the difference in temperature between this heated air and the atmosphere above creates a vortex – or controlled tornado, which in turn drives multiple wind turbines in order to create electricity. The vortex could be shut down by simply turning off the source of warm air. Michaud's company, AVEtec Energy Corporation, reports that the system produces no carbon emissions, nor requires energy storage to function, and that further to this, the cost of energy generated could potentially be as low as US$0.03 per kilowatt hour."

13 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Warm Air. by BradleyUffner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And where does the power from heating the air come from?

    1. Re:Warm Air. by Ironhandx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Geo-thermal vents spring to mind, amongst other things, such as using this technique along with the exhaust from a nuclear reactor to increase its power output.

    2. Re:Warm Air. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, let's create controlled tornadoes in the immediate vicinity of nuclear reactors.
      What could possibly go wrong?

    3. Re:Warm Air. by amRadioHed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What could possibly get wrong when an puny, artificial tornado that will dissipate as soon as it is removed from its source is created in proximity to a reactor sheltered within a dome strong enough to withstand even the strongest natural tornadoes? I'm thinking absolutely nothing.

      --
      We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  2. Interesting by Janek+Kozicki · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ok, I assume that the cost of heating that air at bottom is already calculated in. This would mean that this AVE is pulling energy out of atmosphere (thin air, yeah), which means decreasing the air temperature. Because gas stores energy using kinetic energy of its molecules (temperature). This would mean that AVE will produce energy exploiting the global warming effect. Doubly cool solution. Even if I doubt global warming, I was always thinking, that the hotter it is, the more energy we have, the more power to us (skpping the floods of some coastal regions). I wasn't however sure how to exploit this energy. Well, perhaps AVE is the answer...

    --
    #
    #\ @ ? Colonize Mars
    #
  3. Energy from nothing... by pitchpipe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Energy from nothing and chicks for free. That ain't workin'.

    --
    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  4. Re:No Carbon Emissions? by Dasher42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't need a geothermal vent. A large number of mirrors and a receiver filled with molten salts is itself already a proven technology. Concentrated solar thermal chimneys are actually part of the basis of this design, and they've been generating megawatts for decades in sunnier parts of the world.

    We should have been using this technology already, but skewed money comparisons that ignore pollution and military expenditures make oil *seem* cheaper than these, which it really isn't overall.

    http://www.csp-world.com/tags/khi-solar-one

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. This is an old idea ... by timholman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google "Tornado Turbine" and look for the January 1977 issue of Popular Science. This idea has been around for a long, long time. Back then, the idea was to take advantage of solar heating of the tower to drive the vortex. I've seen similar ideas that were supposed to take advantage of natural pressure / temperature differentials along cliffs and mountains, etc. None have ever been made to work in any practical way.

    When someone fails to check the prior art and starts trumpeting about his or her re-invention of the wheel, then you can just about discount the claims from the start. Why should anyone trust the opinion of an engineer who can't even be bothered to do any background research?

  7. Link by sugarmotor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Popsci opened up their archives a while ago. http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=FgEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=78&query=1977%20Tornado%20Turbine

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    http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
  8. Re:No Carbon Emissions? by Dasher42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because you pay for the cost of keeping oil supply under control not at the gas pump, but through taxes, yet you pay for it all the same, because other energy supplies would not oblige the military to defend the interests of oil companies.

  9. But ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... think of the ecosystem as a whole.

    If you tap the energy of tornadoes to generate power, it will reduce their remaining energy. Tap enough energy and they might become nearly extinct. If this happens, mobile homes, with no remaining natural predators, will multiply out of control.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  10. Re:Rain shadow creator? by c0lo · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's all self contained, it's not like its using 'real' thunderstorms out in the 'wild'. It won't effect the outside world at all realistically.

    Self-contained you say... Won't affect, eh? TFA quote:

    the vortex could be 50 m in diameter at its base and extend up to the tropopause

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