Scientists Developing Tornado Power Plant

[UltimatheChosen]

I'm not sure if something like this is exactly safe, per se...

Worst case scenario, you have a loose tornado. I mean, sure, it's bad, but compared to the kind of disaster you get from a nuclear meltdown or an oil spill, it's relatively minor.

I'm sure their apology of "well it's not as bad as a nuclear meltdown" will go over well with the public.

Since you can use this to replace other power plants, I'm sure it will.

 

[Strazdas]

It's estimated that the AVE would cost about 3 cents and total destruction of air streams per kilowatt hour, which ranks it among the cheapest and most destructive forms of energy.

fixed that for you.

 

[Vegosiux]

Okay, just how do they plan on making the tornado stay put? Yes, creating one is easy (enough). But all you've accomplished is a health hazard that's no good for anything else.

 

[ace_of_something]

One industrial accident away from a super villain. seriously.

Okay, just how do they plan on making the tornado stay put? Yes, creating one is easy (enough). But all you've accomplished is a health hazard that's no good for anything else.

I would assume much the same way a wind tunnel works?

 

[rayen020]

This sounds pretty awesome.

Texas won't make tornados though, just capture them.

 

[rayen020]

Okay, just how do they plan on making the tornado stay put? Yes, creating one is easy (enough). But all you've accomplished is a health hazard that's no good for anything else.

Theoretically you could contain a low level(EF1, EF2) tornado quite easily. The Wind is high enough to spin turbines but provided the containment system isn't built our of brushwood or gable roofs pretty much anything else could hold it in. In a cold place like Canada even if it broke out of its containment the climate would allow it to last or escalate in any sort of significant way.

 

[Orange Monkey]

OH GOD YES

PLEASE

WHATEVER IT TAKES MAKE THIS HAPPEN

It will be incredible

''Hey so what do you do for a living?'' ''Oh you know, I maintain a controlled vortex of pure destructive wind that generates energy for our country''

 

[Callate]

...So, where do the costs figure in, once the thing is built, up, and running?

 

[survivor686]

There was a time when Western University was regarded as simply the party university. Now with their HIV vaccine trials and now tornado power generator, it seems that things have changed.

 

[Verkula]

What could possibly go wrong?

Aw, shiet.

 

[Clankenbeard]

Trumped! Well played Verkula. I was going to post about how Bruce Campbell should be involved in this engineering marvel. He has a great history with tornados and getting sucked into various vortices thoughout his career. But you have F'ing sharks.

You know, there should be a small electric generator (hand or pedal powered) that requires web surfers to back feed 1WattHr of energy into their local electric grid before each web forum post. "Backfeed 4 Feedback!" Who is with me?

 

[Olas]

That sounds like a perpetual motion machine, to the point that its bound to fail.

How is it that the energy consumed by making a TORNADO is lower than the energy we receive from it?

Obviously it doesn't work the way you're thinking it does. This was conceived of by scientists, not second graders, so presumably they understand basic thermodynamics.

Don't mean to bash anyone, but it's funny how many escapists are second guessing this as if they somehow know more about building power plants than the professional engineers and scientists who conceived of and are actually building it.

Anyway, it seems like a very clever way to use energy that would otherwise be lost as dissipating heat.