One engineer believes that he can produce electricity using manmade tornadoes. Engineer Louis Michaud has already created a machine that is designed to create tornadoes which would be used to power homes. The machine is called the Atmospheric Vortex, and it has already been used to create smaller tornadoes.
However, a tornado used to provide electricity on a large scale would have to be much larger and considerably stronger. To generate enough power for residential use, a tornado used would have to be nearly eight miles tall and nearly 100 feet wide. And of course, this tornado would have to be kept stationary and controlled so that it didn’t cause any damage.
Still, Michaud believes that this can be accomplished. It would function by funneling waste heat into the system and then spinning the contained air. The resulting tornado would power a giant turbine as it naturally rises up through the atmosphere.
Michaud started this project as a hobby back in 1969. Originally, he wasn’t even trying to produce energy. Instead he was trying to produce water. Michaud wanted to heat air and then capture the condensation as it cooled down. He believe that this would offer an alternative method to conventional distillation. However, this plan didn’t work out. From there, his plan shifted to producing electricity.
While Michaud has already led projects to successfully produce contained tornados, he still needs to work on harvesting the energy. A commercial sized turbine would need a much more powerful and stable tornado to work with. Michaud believes that this would cost about one billion. He says that it would take a group effort to come up with this kind of capital.
According to Michaud, a vortex engine functioning at maximum capacity would provide 200 megawatts of electricity. This would be enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Michaud believes that such a feat could be accomplished in just a few years if more resources were devoted to the development of electricity generation.
For now, Michaud will continue to work on his lofty, but potentially realistic plan. But unless he comes up with some serious cash, his plans of a massive contained tornado might just blow away.
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