From Martin Greenwood
Mark Simpson and Ari Glezer’s proposal to extract energy using turbines powered by natural vortexes created by warm surfaces (9 March, p 23) begs a question: could enough vortex turbines extract enough energy from the rising air in Tornado Alley in the US to tame or at least lessen the annual destruction?
I can see one potential barrier. It would be impossible to build all the turbines needed (millions) in a single season. An inadequate number of turbines might risk attracting a natural tornado to a turbine, possibly wrecking it. Could the turbines even spawn tornadoes? If so, there would be accompanying lawsuits. This is America, after all.
Stirling, Western Australia
