I wonder if this tech could be used to enahance output from the solar tower enviromission is planning. They both use thermal energy rising. http://www.gizmag.com/enviromission-solar-tower-arizona-clean-energy-renewable/19287/

a tornado's power doesn't come from the tornado but from the wind energy that forms it ... a big tower with a heat source and cold air vents at the bottom would generate as much energy as his vortex ... either way it won't generate a hill of beans worth of power ...

Hmm looks like I need to read the source before I post. The source mentioned the solar chimney and that the vortex replaces the need for the chimney so this would be a competeing technology.

this may be something based on Victor Shauberger's ideas,,if so its about time. Known as the water wizard ,,Shauberger mimiced nature and did many amazing things with vortexes. Read about him and hope!

@ VirtualGathis - Enviromission's project is basically an artificial thermal generator and capitalizes on what nature is already doing all day long anyway. As a hang glider pilot I see this technology working very well. Some thermals give me a climb rate of 2,000+ fpm! However I don't see this AVE working very well. Enviromission uses the free heat from the sun.... This thing lost me as soon as they said they were going to heat all that air with other sources of energy. I'm calling BS on this one...

how much energy does it take to make the warm air?
by second law of thermodynamics it's gotta be more than you can extract out of the system.
There's no free lunch.

This isn't anything new. Michaud has been pushing this concept for over a decade now. Get back to me when he actually gets measurable power out of his vortex engine.

Is it more efficient that coal or natural gas power plants? If someone thinks it's over unity then ask yourself why can't it produce the heat needed to run it.

The question is how efficiently does it convert heat into mechanical energy. A self powered air condition would be so cool.

Would this be viable using directed solar energy to heat the air? At least the heating part would be free (during daylight hours)