Lighting with lightning
If Ben Franklin could harness the power of a lightning strike using nothing more than a metal key tied to a kite, one would think that 260 years later, capturing the billions of volts naturally generated by one strike would be doable. At least Idaho-based Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (AEHI ) seemed to think so. After acquiring the small-scale design plans of an Illinois inventor who used artificially generated lightning to power a light bulb for 20 minutes, AEHI began developing a large-scale prototype in the storm-prone Houston, Texas, area. The lightning farm envisioned by AEHI — a system of towers to attract a strike, with grounding wires and a capacitor to store energy — was abandoned in 2007. A breakthrough study published last March, however, details how French researchers have coaxed artificial lightning to repeatedly strike the same spot, which may bring this technology a step closer.

Taming tornadoes
To say that the atmospheric vortex engine harnesses the energy of a tornado isn’t 100 percent accurate — the idea is to create a tornado. Based on the simple concept that hot air rises, engineer Louis Michaud, president of Sarnia, Ont.-based AVE tec Energy, wants to redirect industrial heat waste into towers laden with turbines. As the hot, humid air rises, it would turn turbines and create a vortex. The system would not only increase the efficiency of existing power plants but also generate electricity at a fraction of the current cost — all within a footprint of less than one square kilometre. A small-scale vortex engine has been tested, but until Michaud finds angels willing to invest, the project’s future is up in the air.