Harnessing atmospheric electric discharge, lightning.

[Londoner]

Harnessing atmospheric electric discharge, lightning.

Theoretically lightning can be harnessed by storing it in capacitors, which take electrical charges very quickly. Fit one pole of a capacitor to the ground and the other to an areal, high enough to attract lightning. So when a lightning strikes the areal, it should charge the capacitor. After that, disconnect the capacitor from the areal and the ground and use the electrical charge for anything useful.

Practically, may capacitors have to be used to harness the lightning energy as much as possible when it takes place. Each capacitor have to be very large with overload protection and polarity charge detectors. The system has to include an automatic mechanism to divert charging path from a capacitor after fully charged to the next discharged capacitor.

This idea came to me after seeing pictures of Khalifa Tower hit by lightning, same pictures can be seen here: http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99238
. I have also mentioned this idea on the amendments I made on my patent pending idea: Linear Electric Generator Force Multiplier: http://force-multiplier-machine.2move.me.uk/

This theory is based on my present knowledge about electricity and lightning and lightning could have some secrets, which I don't know and could invalidate this theory.

[Quaere Verum]

It's been a pretty appealing idea for a long time. But as far as I know and as a matter of fact the electrical energy obtained from lightning would be less than adequate to suffice even an ordinary light bulb to be ran in a one year period for example, if we managed to harness this sort of atmospheric energy ever. Is this matter considered in your theory? Maybe I am wrong since I am not very good at physics.

[talsor]

It is a nice thought , however capacitors are used to block the flow of direct current while allowing alternating current to pass
it is also used to filter out interference, to smooth the output of power supplies . I have not heared of anyone used capacitor as a storage for Electricity .

Here is a link that would explain it better .

http://www.technologystudent.com/elec1/capac1.htm

[Quaere Verum]

I have not heared of anyone used capacitor as a storage for Electricity .

But allegedly in each capacitor there is an electric field in the relative dielectric which practically stores electric energy whenever it gets disconnected from the charging source, "lightning" in this instance. It is what I could grasp out of the following link, despit my meager knowledge in terms of electricity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor#Energy_storage_2

[Londoner]

It's been a pretty appealing idea for a long time. But as far as I know and as a matter of fact the electrical energy obtained from lightning would be less than adequate to suffice even an ordinary light bulb to be ran in a one year period for example, if we managed to harness this sort of atmospheric energy ever. Is this matter considered in your theory? Maybe I am wrong since I am not very good at physics.

Many thanks for your input. Frankly I don't know a lot about lightning. That is way I stated that my theory could be invalidated. Nevertheless you have given me a hope now. At least my theory is correct although the application may not be good enough, not worthwhile. From what I undestand you state that lightning made up from high voltages mainly. That is way it doesn't provide sufficient energy. This could be the reason as so far no attempts have been made to harness it. I have also read a lot about the amount of power, which lightning can provide if harnessed. From these readings I thought lightning can provide sufficient energy to provide power needs of any big cities.

[Londoner]

It is a nice thought , however capacitors are used to block the flow of direct current while allowing alternating current to pass
it is also used to filter out interference, to smooth the output of power supplies . I have not heared of anyone used capacitor as a storage for Electricity .

Here is a link that would explain it better .

http://www.technologystudent.com/elec1/capac1.htm

Kak Talsor,

Capacitors are similar to batteries, except they can take and release charges very quickly. Car batteries are like capacitors, they store charges. But they can not be charged or discharged quickly. In nuclear researchs, they use large capacitors to create extremely high temperatures like thousands of degrees. Simply they charge very large capacitors and then let them to discharge immeditely.

capacitors are used to block the flow of direct current while allowing alternating current to pass

It is not like that. Capacitors don't let anything to pass because a capacitor is made up of two separate flat sheets, each sheet linked to one of the two wires linked to the capacitor. But cleverly a capacitor can be used to convert alternating current to direct current.

[talsor]

I have not heared of anyone used capacitor as a storage for Electricity .

But allegedly in each capacitor there is an electric field in the relative dielectric which practically stores electric energy whenever it gets disconnected from the charging source, "lightning" in this instance. It is what I could grasp out of the following link, despit my meager knowledge in terms of electricity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor#Energy_storage_2

I can not argue with that and this is what the capacitors are designed for , it is a temporary storage , which does not last long when the main power source is disconnected . Based on my uderstanding , Capacitor are nothing more than a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric , so I do not know who could that be converted to a permenant storage device .

[Londoner]

Lightning seems to have a lot of power. According to this source, the average output power of a single lightning strike is about one trillion Wat = one billion Kw = 277778 KW/hour, which is worth 277778 x 10p = £27777.8 in monitary gains if a KwH is 10p.

An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30,000amperes ("amps") — 30 "kiloamps" (kA), and transfers five coulombs ofelectric charge and 500 million joules — 500 "megajoules" (MJ) of energy. Large bolts of lightning can carry up to 120 kA and 350 coulombs.[13] Thevoltage is proportional to the length of the bolt.
An average bolt of positive lightning carries an electric current of about 300 kA — about 10 times that of negative lightning.[citation needed]
Lightning leader development is not just a matter of the electrical breakdown of air, which is about 3 megavolts per meter (MV/m). The ambient electric fields required for lightning leader propagation can be one or two orders of magnitude (10−2) less than the electrical breakdown strength. The potential ("voltage") gradient inside a well-developed return-stroke channel is on the order of hundreds of volts per meter (V/m) due to intense channel ionization, resulting in a true power output on the order of one megawatt per meter (MW/m) for a vigorous return stroke current of 100 kA.[14] The average peak power output of a single lightning stroke is about one trillion watts — one "terawatt" (1012 W), and the stroke lasts for about 30 millionths of a second — 30 "microseconds".[15]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Properties

[Quaere Verum]

Many thanks for your input. Frankly I don't know a lot about lightning. That is way I stated that my theory could be invalidated. Nevertheless you have given me a hope now. At least my theory is correct although the application may not be good enough, not worthwhile. From what I undestand you state that lightning made up from high voltages mainly. That is way it doesn't provide sufficient energy. This could be the reason as so far no attempts have been made to harness it. I have also read a lot about the amount of power, which lightning can provide if harnessed. From these readings I thought lightning can provide sufficient energy to provide power needs of any big cities.

Lightning seems to have a lot of power. According to this source, the average output power of a single lightning strike is about one trillion Wat = one billion Kw = 277778 KW/hour, which is worth 277778 x 10p = £27777.8 in monitary gains if a KwH is 10p.

An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30,000amperes ("amps") — 30 "kiloamps" (kA), and transfers five coulombs ofelectric charge and 500 million joules — 500 "megajoules" (MJ) of energy. Large bolts of lightning can carry up to 120 kA and 350 coulombs.[13] Thevoltage is proportional to the length of the bolt.
An average bolt of positive lightning carries an electric current of about 300 kA — about 10 times that of negative lightning.[citation needed]
Lightning leader development is not just a matter of the electrical breakdown of air, which is about 3 megavolts per meter (MV/m). The ambient electric fields required for lightning leader propagation can be one or two orders of magnitude (10−2) less than the electrical breakdown strength. The potential ("voltage") gradient inside a well-developed return-stroke channel is on the order of hundreds of volts per meter (V/m) due to intense channel ionization, resulting in a true power output on the order of one megawatt per meter (MW/m) for a vigorous return stroke current of 100 kA.[14] The average peak power output of a single lightning stroke is about one trillion watts — one "terawatt" (1012 W), and the stroke lasts for about 30 millionths of a second — 30 "microseconds".[15]


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Properties

My pleasure pal. I always admire such ideas. I either used to hold a little knowledge about lightning, most likely very much lesser than yours. Until last night that I read your thread and afterwards googled some stuffs regarding to it. And it was no sooner than that point that I got the potential energy awaiting to be obtained out of a lightning strike is not a considerable amount in theory. As you exactly mentioned this is probably the reason why there have not been any serious attempts to harness it so far.

Regarding to the energy held by lightning, apparently since it lasts for a very minute time as well as most of its energy turns into heat, light, radio waves, etc. (Uman MA. All about lightning. New York: Dover, pp 1-160, 1986. ) thus theoretically it would not be a great amount of power if we harnessed it ever. But I personally think its amount of energy doesn't matter at all. That is to say it itself would be an outstandingly great step if we succeeded to harness lightning energy. I am impatiently looking forward your next moves in practice. Keep us posted bro.

[Quaere Verum]

I can not argue with that and this is what the capacitors are designed for , it is a temporary storage , which does not last long when the main power source is disconnected . Based on my uderstanding , Capacitor are nothing more than a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric , so I do not know who could that be converted to a permenant storage device .

There is no necessity to have a permanent storage bro. Capacitors discharge energy as soon as they got disconnected from the charging source, but this occurs gradually and if the amount of energy stored within the capacitor was something considerable therefore we could utilize it immediately in spite of gradual discharging.

[Londoner]

My pleasure pal. I always admire such ideas. I either used to hold a little knowledge about lightning, most likely very much lesser than yours. Until last night that I read your thread and afterwards googled some stuffs regarding to it. And it was no sooner than that point that I got the potential energy awaiting to be obtained out of a lightning strike is not a considerable amount in theory. As you exactly mentioned this is probably the reason why there have not been any serious attempts to harness it so far.

Sorry, I have to withdraw my statement. Because now I know lightning carries a lot of energies, just one strike has 1 billion KW, which has a monitary value of approximately £28,000.00. This power is enough to supply electricity needs of at least 30,000 average families for a year.

I think the reason lightning has not been harnessed yet, because so far no research has been made to make special equipments for it, like making capacitors strong enough to bear receiving large amounts of power and survive after fully charged with the help of overload protectors.

[Londoner]

I can not argue with that and this is what the capacitors are designed for , it is a temporary storage , which does not last long when the main power source is disconnected . Based on my uderstanding , Capacitor are nothing more than a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric , so I do not know who could that be converted to a permenant storage device .

There is no necessity to have a permanent storage bro. Capacitors discharge energy as soon as they got disconnected from the charging source, but this occurs gradually and if the amount of energy stored within the capacitor was something considerable therefore we could utilize it immediately in spite of gradual discharging.

Theoretically, you can keep a capacitor fully charged for ever if you can insulate it perfectly.

[Quaere Verum]

Sorry, I have to withdraw my statement. Because now I know lightning carries a lot of energies, just one strike has 1 billion KW, which has a monitary value of approximately £28,000.00. This power is enough to supply electricity needs of at least 30,000 average families for a year.

I used to believe so too, but for now I am afraid it is refuted on account of the following lines:

" "If we could just harness lightning we could use that to power the world for months. "

Uman eloquently explains the reason this cannot be done and is false in his book, All About Lightning. He makes two points: it is impractical to intercept a sufficient number of the lightning strikes occurring in the world, and most of the energy in a lightning strike is converted to thunder, heat, light, and radio waves. He notes, "If its total energy were available, a single lightning flash would run an ordinary household light bulb for only a few months.""

From "Lightning Injury Facts (Myths, Miracles, and Mirages); Mary Ann Cooper, MD; (Adapted from Seminars in Neurology, Volume 15, Number 4, December 1995) (Permission for use on this page kindly granted by Thieme Medical Publishers Inc.)"

Source: University of Illinoise (at Chicago) website (read more on: http://www.uic.edu/labs/lightninginjury/ltnfacts.htm)

[Londoner]

Sorry, I have to withdraw my statement. Because now I know lightning carries a lot of energies, just one strike has 1 billion KW, which has a monitary value of approximately £28,000.00. This power is enough to supply electricity needs of at least 30,000 average families for a year.

I used to believe so too, but for now I am afraid it is refuted on account of the following lines:

" "If we could just harness lightning we could use that to power the world for months. "

Uman eloquently explains the reason this cannot be done and is false in his book, All About Lightning. He makes two points: it is impractical to intercept a sufficient number of the lightning strikes occurring in the world, and most of the energy in a lightning strike is converted to thunder, heat, light, and radio waves. He notes, "If its total energy were available, a single lightning flash would run an ordinary household light bulb for only a few months.""

From "Lightning Injury Facts (Myths, Miracles, and Mirages); Mary Ann Cooper, MD; (Adapted from Seminars in Neurology, Volume 15, Number 4, December 1995) (Permission for use on this page kindly granted by Thieme Medical Publishers Inc.)"

Source: University of Illinoise (at Chicago) website (read more on: http://www.uic.edu/labs/lightninginjury/ltnfacts.htm)

Fair point!!! neverethless, we both talk theory without practical proof.

[Quaere Verum]

Fair point!!! neverethless, we both talk theory without practical proof.

Yup, the whole idea is to be put into practice yet.