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Here’s an interesting idea. Louis Michaud, a Canadian engineer, thinks he may have come up with a way to harness energy generated by creating artificial whirlwinds that can be controlled. Basically, he believes that he can make a tornado and then tap into it’s energy.
The power released by a large hurricane can exceed the energy consumption of the entire human race for a whole year and an average tornado possesses the equivilant power output of a large power gen plant. Louis Michaud envisions an Atmospheric Vortex Engine would be produced inside of a cylindrical wall. Here’s a description of the process from an article at The Economist…
“Warm air at ground level enters via tangential inlets around the base of the wall. Steam is also injected to get the vortex started. Once established, the heat content of the air at ground level is enough to keep the vortex going. As the air rises, it expands and cools, and water vapour condenses, releasing even more heat. This is, in fact, what powers a hurricane, which can be thought of as a heat engine that takes in warm, humid air at its base, releases cold, watery air at the top of the troposphere, about 12 kilometres up, and liberates a vast amount of energy in the process.“
The intensity of the vortex would be controlled by closing the inlets around the base or by opening another set of inlets to inject air in the opposite direction, slowing the vortex’s rotation. There would be a set of turbines at the base of the vortex to harness the energy as air rushed through the inlets. Louis estimates that an atmospheric vortex engine with a diameter of 200 metres could produce around 200 megawatts of power.
Louis recently began tests at a site in Utah with a cylindrical wall 10 metres in diameter. His first task is going to be proving that artificial vortices can in fact be created and controlled.
How would you like this guy for a next-door neighbor?
Here’s the link to Louis’ web site with tons of info on his Atmospheric Vortex Engine theory.
[via we-make-money-not-art]
James – With all due respect, I don’t think that having thousands of people walking (or rollerblading) in circles to turn turbine shafts is going to solve our energy problems. I applaud your imagination, but I believe that harnessing the freer sources like the sun, wind and tides is going to prove more beneficial to us in the long run.
In regards to your suggestion that the folks in the WTC should have repelled down the building, well that’s just silly and I imagine more than a little offensive to those who lost loved ones that day. Repelling any distance (let alone 100 stories) with fishing line would be far from a simple solution.
Thanks for stopping by though.
Hi, my name is James, living here in Montreal-Quebec-Canada and
my email address is : (email address removed by Editor)
It would be alot easier and less costly to produce electricity, if you have a few thousand people turning the metal shafts that are connected to
the turbines in a power plant .
Whaaa ??!!! What the hell is he talking about ???!!! LOL !!???
Okay, before you press the Panic Button, consider my proposal
carefully.
You have a series of horizontal carbon fibre rods that extend
outwards from a central rotary shaft about 25 feet and
you have 24 of them per shaft and 4 people per rod and that
makes a team of 100 people producing about 20 thousand pounds
of torque continuously and this will generate megawatts of
electricity.
Several hundreds of these teams and you can produce
enough electricity for all of the United States of America and
much more and it will be the lowest cost per kilowatt as well.
And in order for these teams to turn the rotary shafts, each
person dons a pair of roller blades and VOILA and EUREKA !!!!
There you have it !!
The Problem with North American Culture, is that we are
not used to the idea of such incredibly ridiculous and yet sooooo
simple solutions.
We tend to believe that the more complicated a technology and or product is : then the better it is.
A case in point. Women spend hundreds and thousands of dollars
each year on skin products to moisturize their skin, when in fact,
a small jar of unscented vaseline and a litre of organic carrot juice a day will do the trick.
Another example :
The WTC Tower collapse :
People were jumping to their deaths when all they needed was
some Honeywell Spectra 2000 fishing line and a good
pair of gloves and they could have all scaled down the side
of the building in less than two minutes.
Any sport fishing store sells it for a few dollars.
But nobody had that and they ended up dying.
An ounce of prevention and preparation is worth a lifetime
of living.
Another simple remedy that WORKS ALL the time !!!
If and when I would get Strep throat or a cold, flu etc, I
would mix Matouks Hot Pepper sauce in some cottage cheese and
eat it like that and then I would be completely healed in less
than a few hours.
The last four years have seen a considerable reduction in the
of throat infections for me personally.
In fact my Medicare card expired 4 years ago and have not
been to see a doctor since I started this simple naturopathic
remedy.
The Matouks Hot Pepper sauce is akin to pouring volcanic lava
down my throat, but that is exactly what kills the strep bacteria
and other germs and cold viruses right away.
A 500 ML bottle costs just 3 dollars and is less costly than
expensive antibiotics that most do not work and or take days
to be effective, whereas this begins work immediately .