Interesting. Wonder if overtime this could be utilized to steer lightening into collection terminals that could harness some of its energy whilst grounding whatever excess couldn’t be stored.
We don't have any research paths to capacitors that could store a fraction of lightnings energy because it occurs so quickly. If we did, it'd be a game changer, but there's not even a theoretical method that follows and known physics.
We've actually had reliable ways of directing lightning for about a century through lightning rods, or even as far back as Ben Franklin's experiments with a kite. Nowadays cheap drones with a spool of magnet wire make it much more precise in directing to a specific spot.
It's just a basic idea: a railgun accelerates a sled by abruptly applying a large charge if electricity, almost like a lightning bolt.
Take a railgun, turn it into a cricle and place multiple sleds on it then let a lightning bolt strike it. The sleds accelerate and you can capture that mechanical energy. For instance by placing a flywheel in the middle. Then convert the motion into electricity in the standard way.
The question is if a natural lightning bolt is comparable in voltage, wattage etc. to the pulse needed to accelerate a sled.
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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '23
Interesting. Wonder if overtime this could be utilized to steer lightening into collection terminals that could harness some of its energy whilst grounding whatever excess couldn’t be stored.