Using Artificial Tornadoes to Generate Electricity?

September 19, 2008

First, a shout-out to reader Jim Rowing, who responded to my recent blog about whether scientists should try to manipulate hurricanes to lessen their destructive force with this comment:

Why not harness the energy! The east coast from NC to FL and the Gulf Coast could become the greatest power producing plants in the country.

Now, trying to harness the power of hurricanes might seem like a truly outlandish notion, but consider this: According to the Web site of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in a single day a hurricane can release an amount of energy equivalent to one-half of the world’s entire electric-generating capacity. Moreover, as another reader pointed out, NOAA meteorologist Neal Dorst actually seems to have given at least some thought to the idea:

If someone can figure out a way to harness that energy, the more power to them. They could earn millions of dollars and the gratitude of everyone on the shore. Every dyne of energy harvested would be one less dyne blowing over trees.

The biggest technical impediment is that a hurricane's energy is low grade. It's abundant, but it's spread over a tremendous area. For energy to be high grade it should be concentrated, making it easy to gather and use. You would need a field of wind turbines covering dozens of square miles in order for it to be profitable. And it would have to be mobile, so you could intercept landfalling storms, or chase those that change direction. Of course, you have to expend energy to move them around, so you run the risk of losing money on the operation. The same is true of wave turbines plus you would need to find a way of anchoring them securely without compromising mobility.

It would be a daunting technical task, plus you have to worry about your turbines being robust enough to sustain damage from windblown debris and be able to transmit the energy gathered quickly. So after you draw up your engineering specs, you'd better have an investor or two, because it will cost you a great deal of money to build so many of these reinforced, mobile turbine units even before you collect you first erg. has proposed the idea of creating artificial hurricanes — well, hurricane-sized tornadoes, actually — and then harnessing them for electricity generation.

But here’s another intriguing variation on the concept. Canadian engineer Louis Michaud has proposed the idea of creating artificial hurricanes — well, hurricane-sized tornadoes, actually — and then harnessing them for electricity generation. A 2005 article in The Economist explains the basic concept of what he calls the atmospheric vortex engine: