How to Generate Power in a Post-Apocolyptic World

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Austrian engineer, Franz Zotlöterer, has constructed a low-head power plant that makes use of the kinetic energy inherent in an artificially induced vortex. The plant can be installed with a water drop as little as 0.7 meters.

The system is similar to one set forth by Viktor Schauberger, except that it has a dual purpose of aerating water, whereas Schauberger's design was optimized for generating electricity.

In Zotlöterer's system, the water's vortex energy is collected by a slow-moving, large-surface water wheel, making the power station transparent to fish. There are no large pressure differences built up, as happens in normal turbines. The cost of construction for such a plant is half that of a conventional hydroelectric installation of similar yield; and the environmental impact is positive, instead of negative.

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Air hitting Energytower is led into it and accelerates as the tower's inner radius decreases. Inside the tower, a vertical-axed three-blade rotor starts to rotate. The accelerated air increases pressure and temperature along the inner walls of the tower, generating a relative pressure drop in the middle of the tower – the eye of the tornado. The pressure gap creates a chimney effect in the tower which also adds to the rotation of the rotor. The low pressure in the middle of the whirl enables a fast release of air from the tower whereby new air can be taken in.

Uses might include extending the battery-life of implanted drug pumps, powering artificial limbs, reducing the load of batteries that soldiers carry into the field, and bringing electricity to remote areas of poor countries.