Can we harness energy from Hurricanes?
In the midst of the deadly rush of wind and raging storms signaling an impending tornado, one is compelled to rush indoors to a safe, windowless place well within a building structure to escape the impending danger. Watching the storm unleash devastation, you wonder what could be the cause of Mother Nature flexing her meteorological muscle. About 600 Terra Watts of energy is dissipated during a typical hurricane, with 25% being wind energy and the huge part being heat energy which is stored as water vapor and condensed in rain droplets according to Smithsonian. One is then forced to ask if there could be a means to harness the stupendous amount of energy that is dissipated when hurricanes pummel the coastal area. The answers are not far-fetched.
So far, experts have not collected energy from hurricane, however the idea has potential if we somehow develop cost-effective technology to do it.Hurricanes are unpredictable. The unpredictability of the storms have made it difficult to devise a method to harvest the energy it dispense.
Secondly, hurricane spends majority of their short life cycle at sea and there are logistical problem encountered in even analyzing not to talk of harvesting energy from them.The storm carries energy in form of wind and heat energy in which the majority is the heat energy which condenses water vapor to droplets, experts have not been able to devise a technology for harvesting this heat energy from storms.
More so, Some scientists are interested in capturing wind energy from hurricanes. Japanese researchers from the renewable energy firm Challenergy are working on a wind turbine that would be able to capture energy from and withstand powerful typhoons, CNN reported in 2016. They are considering planting windmills in the direction of storms to harness the energy but before this can be done, the turbine must be sturdy enough to withstand the brutal force of the storm and the turbine must also be mobile to be able to secure the windmill safely at a station. This is not achievable yet because a turbine can’t be sturdy and mobile at the same time, the properties are mutually exclusive. Most experts even had to shut down their turbines in the presence of a raging storm not to talk of the messy and brutal hurricane!
It will be noteworthy to end with the words of Chris Landsea: “Until technology catches up to our imaginations, taming high-energy storms in nature will be the thing of the future”.
Useful Links
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/harness-energy-tornado-hurricane.htm
https://www.businessinsider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-hurricane-energy-power-cities-2017-10
Author: Damilola Akamo
