Let the champagne socialists dither about putting their ugly windmills off the public beach. Voters will never mistake that for serious energy policy. Here, though, is wind power a red blooded conservative can get excited about. It’s an artificial tornado in a giant silo:
Fabricated tornadoes could be the next best thing in wind energy if a machine that recreates a powerful, natural phenomenon can harness their power successfully.
The atmospheric vortex engine, an invention by Canadian petroleum engineer, Louis Michaud, could be used to capture waste heat from power plants and convert it into useable megawatts.
"Two hundred megawatts would supply the electricity needs of a city of 100,000 people with 25,000 homes," said Michaud, whose theories were tested this summer in Utah at an experimental tower owned and operated by colleague and computer engineer Tom Fletcher.
It can use heat from nuclear plants, and can also be placed closer to demand centers than low load factor windmills. The fact that an oil engineer invented it should give the Earth First crowd fits, however (Now if only Karl Rove can find a way to release and direct these tornadoes…).
