# Please help me double check this tornado power claim.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-double-check-this-tornado-power-claim/646221>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 6, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-double-check-this-tornado-power-claim/646221 "2013-01-06T03:05:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-double-check-this-tornado-power-claim/646221/1 "2013-01-06T03:05:33Z")

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I saw [this link](https://www.breakoutlabs.org/news-events/news-event-item/article/power-a-city-with-tornados-latest-grants-announced-by-thiel-foundations-breakout-labs-includes-an.html) on another forum about using an artificial tornado/vortex to turn turbines and generate power. I realize that this is a press release, so I went to the website of the company in question and skimmed the [overview page](http://vortexengine.ca/english.shtml) for their “atmospheric vortex engine”.

One of the paragraphs of that page states that the “heat to work conversion efficiency of the process is approximately 15% because the heat is received at an average temperature of 15 C and given up at an average temperature of -15 C”. I am a physics student, but I have nearly no knowledge of fluid dynamics or meteorology. However, if the claim is that their engine takes in heat at 15 degrees celsius, and expels waste heat at -15 degrees celsius, then the [maximum theoretical efficiency should be about 10.4%](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%281+-+258.15%2F288.15%29+*+100). What say you about the veracity of this company’s claims?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-double-check-this-tornado-power-claim/646221/2 "2013-01-06T03:22:52Z")

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I don’t know about the science involved, but this looks similar to a [solar updraft tower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower), in which the air rising up the chimney due to convection drives horizontal wind turbines. Not particularly efficient, but very low operating cost once constructed.