Background:
There have been various patents filed for making an artificial hurricane or artificial tornado (aka artificial vortex engine, or vortex generator) where a large but ultralight tower made of low cost material (plastic structure with mylar) would be used to catch solar energy and latent heat in water at the sea surface, making the air in this tall tower spin like a tornado, and spew out clean drinking water on the one hand and electric energy on the other.
The idea:
Make a giant low cost submerged "tower" using hot and cold water currents, which create electricity and spew out oil separated from the water. some of this oil could be burned on the spot to get energy to run the process. It would behave like a giant vacuum cleaner on the one hand, while being a large source of electric energy.
Make it at the entrance to the gulf stream, so that you get a nice amount of latent energy from the sea, without making too much of an environmental impact (if there still is any natural habitat left)
Make a way for living fish to be able to swim out and catch only the dead fish, using those for creating cod liver oil, to be used in the process.-- pashute, Jun 29 2010random, halfbakery