ChatterBank1 min ago
Harnessing Ligtning
Can we do this? I mean can we not channel the electricity by using super long coils to lessen the voltage and then channel the electricity into giant batteries?
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The first problem in building any such device would be the insulation required, remembering that we're talking about millions of volts. The strike can also deliver huge currents. So the primary of any transformer capable of bringing such vast amounts of power under control would have to have impracticable insulation and very thick conductors, expensive if made of silver or even copper. Lesser conductors would produce too much heat.
The first problem in building any such device would be the insulation required, remembering that we're talking about millions of volts. The strike can also deliver huge currents. So the primary of any transformer capable of bringing such vast amounts of power under control would have to have impracticable insulation and very thick conductors, expensive if made of silver or even copper. Lesser conductors would produce too much heat.
I don't think that's such a problem - the biggest one is that lightning strikes irregularly
Secondly a lightning bolt contains only a couple of hundred KWhrs of energy that would power a house for a week or so - it's just that the energy is delivered in a very short burst.
Thirdly efficiently storing energy is the big problem - if you can do that we can use renewables like wind or wave properly
Secondly a lightning bolt contains only a couple of hundred KWhrs of energy that would power a house for a week or so - it's just that the energy is delivered in a very short burst.
Thirdly efficiently storing energy is the big problem - if you can do that we can use renewables like wind or wave properly
I have seen video of rockets trailing thin copper wires being fired from a mountain top into clouds at a lightning research facility in the USA.
Any attempt to capture the energy of a strike would be very difficult since the pulse is very brief. No existing technology can cope with the current and voltage. A lighting strike involves about 250,000 Amps. The energy lost in resistance is proportional to the square of the current so the tiniest resistance would melt anything other than a superconductor.
One might consider trying to extract the charge from the cloud before it built up enough to strike. However the odds are that the equipment would be struck by a bolt and destroyed.
Any attempt to capture the energy of a strike would be very difficult since the pulse is very brief. No existing technology can cope with the current and voltage. A lighting strike involves about 250,000 Amps. The energy lost in resistance is proportional to the square of the current so the tiniest resistance would melt anything other than a superconductor.
One might consider trying to extract the charge from the cloud before it built up enough to strike. However the odds are that the equipment would be struck by a bolt and destroyed.
flobadob ///Could the power not be stored underground, using the earth as an insulator.///
At the voltages involved in lightning there are few good insulators. Most types of earth are reasonably conductive due to the presence of moisure and salts. Indeed remote power transmission is sometimes done with one conductor and uses the earth as the return path.
http://en.wikipedia.o...gle-wire_earth_return
Dry sand insulates but the lightning arcs through the air in it. When lightning strikes in sand it can melt the sand and form fulgarites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite
At the voltages involved in lightning there are few good insulators. Most types of earth are reasonably conductive due to the presence of moisure and salts. Indeed remote power transmission is sometimes done with one conductor and uses the earth as the return path.
http://en.wikipedia.o...gle-wire_earth_return
Dry sand insulates but the lightning arcs through the air in it. When lightning strikes in sand it can melt the sand and form fulgarites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite
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