Read up on the technology before making more unfounded criticisms.
Here's a first order calculation of the power flows for a 200MW generation
station in the tropical ocean assuming it lowers the water temperature by 3
degrees K over an area of one hectare with a 10% carnot efficiency
(remember these vortexes reach several kilometers into the atmosphere and
we're dealing with very warm tropical oceans in the doldrums -- where there
isn't much wind:
200MW*10;4.18J/ml/deltaK;3deltaK;ha?m/s
([{(200 * [mega*watt]) * 10} * {([4.18 * joule] / [milli*liter]) /
deltaK}^-1] * [3 * deltaK]^-1) * hectare^-1 ? meter / ...
= 0.015948963 m/s
That is to say the cooled water is sinking at a rate of less than an inch
per second on average.
As for the wind blowing the vortex off of its base, you need to look at
some photographs of water spouts:
[image: Inline image 1]
The vortex structure is locked to its source of vorticity. Yes, it is
possible to disrupt this under extreme weather conditions but the larger
the vortex and the greater the percent of its energy in its vorticity, the
more stable it is against cross-winds.
On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 5:31 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> In reply to James Bowery's message of Mon, 19 Aug 2013 17:17:25 -0500:
> Hi,
> [snip]
> Despite what I wrote below, there may still be a future for this
> technology, if
> combined with conventional wind turbines. On windy days the vortex may not
> work,
> but the wind turbines would do well, and on wind still days it would be the
> other way around, so the two complement one another.
>
> >You obviously haven't done, even to a first order of approximation, the
> >power flow estimates.
>
> True, but that's not going to stop the wind from blowing the vortex
> sideways off
> it's base.
>
> Regards,
>
> Robin van Spaandonk
>
> http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
>
>
