Harvesting lightening!!

[silverweb]

Some 30 years ago, my dad and I used to sit up nights trying to figure out how this might be possible. Now there's a working prototype.

This is so exciting! Check it out _here_!

[bloom]

1. that is cool

thanks for posting.

[kestrel91316]

2. Great, in theory. But I won't believe it until they have got a

functional prototype for harvesting.

My gut feeling is that any equipment used to attempt to harvest the electricity from lightning will MELT when it gets hit.

[seriousstan]

3. The key phrase is..collect power from the ground area surrounding a strike

The power dissipated through the ground will obviously be much lower than a direct hit. The question is, how much lower?

[silverweb]

5. Exactly!

:thumbsup:

[TransitJohn]

11. 1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!! eom

**

[silverweb]

4. They say they have a prototype.

As for "melting," the prototype is said to collect the energy from the ground area surrounding a strike, not from the lightening bolt itself.

Skepticism is a healthy thing, but I won't let it dim my hope for this technology. The planned full-scale testing next summer will be something to watch!

[bananas]

6. future headline: "The test was a success, but..."

"...all the scientists were electrocuted."

[silverweb]

9. LOL

Let's hope not!

:D

[mainegreen]

7. How on earth do they plan to store all the enegery between storms?

A sea of batteries? Fields of capacitors?

[silverweb]

8. I don't think they plan to store it.

The article says that the energy would be transported to the grid.

How? I'm not an engineer, so I have no clue. I'm sure they have something in mind, though.

[skids]

12. Probably in stages.

Likely the storage is handled in stages -- The first stage might be a coil, and then if all you want to do is store it for a few minutes, you can get away with much cheaper capacitors. Each stage would be able to intake the energy rapidly, and then output it less rapidly to the next stage while cooling off.

Of course even when averaged out thunderstorms themselves are fairly unpredictable -- this will be a niche power market even less predictable than wind.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Very cool! I used to wonder about this too. nt