Outside the Box

[Done]

We have a medieval attitude that lightning striking a lightning rod is somehow ghoulish, like in the story of Dr Frankenstein’s monster. Lightning is an endless supply of free energy, all we have to do is build the hardware to harvest and store it. I’m not talking about high tech lightning rods where we try to draw energy from the clouds and perhaps influence the weather. I’m talking good old fashioned lightning rods to collect the energy that falls naturally. How much energy falls from the sky in electrical storms each year, and why do environmentalists never talk about harvesting this energy?

Something else I never hear environmentalists talking about is the idea of building our houses underground. We can cut our energy consumption significantly by building underground. (And preserve wildlife on the surface).

[MemphisTiger]

1. You can't store electricity. So the idea of lightning strike

is not feasible.

[Done]

2. Energy can be stored, though it's expensive.

This has always been a problem for solar or wind power, yet environmentalists will push these ideas. We do need to improve our ability to store electricity.

[MemphisTiger]

3. If you are talking about batteries, they cannot hold enough

from a lighting strike. Electricity not like water or gas in a pipe line you can store. If it's too expensive, there is no need in pursuing the goal. If you can come up with something completely new that can store energy, you will be the richest man in the world. Just don't become a freeper, and remember your people here at DU. HA HA

Or you can get your flux capacitor ala Back to the Future.

[Done]

4. A car battery holds about 25 cents worth of electricity.

I've heard of communities which provide homeowners with a two way power meters. If the homeowner's solar panel puts power into the power grid, the homeowner gets a credit. We could do the same thing with electrical storms; if a homeowner lightning rod puts power into the power grid, the homeowner would get a credit.

This would mean that when there is thunderstorm in Ohio, the power grid in Ohio would absorb excess electricity from all those lightning strikes. We would need to able to quickly move that excess electricity to other areas. Although considering the volume of power that would come into the grid during a short period of time, it would probably overload. But, just think of all that electricity! We don’t have a shortage of energy; we have a shortage of technology.

[Nihil]

5. Maybe not.

> if a homeowner lightning rod puts power into the power grid, the
> homeowner would get a credit.

If a homeowner lightning rod puts power into the power grid, the
homeowner would get a rather large bill ... for the repair of the
power utility's equipment ...

Electricity from lightning bolts is a world apart from electricity
from your mains outlet. Although I agree with your starting premise,
(i.e., shame we can't make use of lightning), the technical problems
involved in this task are not trivial.

I'd also be curious about how often lightning actually strikes the
same small area as there would be little point in working to capture
the energy from a lightning strike if the collector would only be
hit once a year ...

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Lightning CAN be stored, but it's not really feasible

One of the environmental physics sites has a few articles on attempts to store electricity from lightning. It can be done, but the effort and cost far outweigh the value of the electricity. If I find the link again, I'll post about it.

--p!

[htuttle]

6. Wasn't Tesla perilously close to being able to do this?

I know he's more famous for being able to MAKE lightning, not store it, but I thought at least one of his projects was looking at tapping the atmosphere's innate static potential? (not exactly storing lightning, but more like tapping the energy behind lightning, IIRC).

[indigobusiness]

8. Why couldn't lightning energy be trapped as heat in water?

Or oil, or something? There must be some way to transfer the intense jolts of electricical energy into another, more manageable form. It isn't easy, obviously, but surely not insurmountable.

[Tace]

9. Here's A Discussion On Storage Of Lightning Power On Sciforums.com

http://www.sciforums.com/archive/index.php/t-40964