Harnessing Ligtning

[Theranged]

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?

[chakka35]

Immediate thoughts:

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.

[Theranged]

So it's unlikely it will ever happen?

[Davethedog]

Not only what Chakka says you need consistancy, I wouldn't have thought that anywhere in Britain has enough lightening storms on a regular basis to make such a thing viable. Probably only a couple of places int the world.

[Theranged]

I see.

[jake-the-peg]

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

[factor-fiction]

I'm not sure how the location could be predicted. Are you suggesting we have lots of very tall lightning conductors on all tall buildings, high ground etc?

[Theranged]

Factor I was just wondering whether or not it was viable. Had it have been then I reckon the firing of rockets with wires into the cloud might've been the best method.

[beso]

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.

[flobadob]

Could the power not be stored underground, using the earth as an insulator.

[Answerprancer]

Go back to Hill Valley CA at 10.04pm on 5th Nov 1955 - lightning will strike the clocktower generating 1.21 gigawatts of energy :-)
(ps. dont forget to bring a DeLorean with a large crudely built metal hook poking out the back).

[beso]

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