How to harness the energy from lightning.

[xelasnave]

Imagine if we could harness and importantly store the energy from lightning.
I have it.
You distribute the energy from a bolt into many small motors that receive just a little of the charge..maybe mullions of little motors I havent done any sums.

So the motors each move a giant weight up a hill ...gravity energy to rev up dynamos as is comes back down the hill.
Mmm better go and build a model☺

Alex

[xelasnave]

And we could supplement the lift with solar and wind power even clean coal power☺

Alex.

[xelasnave]

Each bolt gives a billion watts..mmm how many 300 watt motors. How many motors could you get by with. So how many people will one strike keep in power..billion watts less energy loss supplying and taking off power..maybe 20%loss so .8 of a billion watts.
Alex

[xelasnave]

So we need to control this region to corner the energy market..what is a .8 billion watts worth times the numbers here☺
What does this make a square kilomer worth?��☺https://www.google.com/search?q=place+of+highest+frequency +of+lightning+strikes&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8&inm=vs#tts=0
Alex

[xelasnave]

Although the lightning map suggests central Africa must be the best candidate for high strikes over a large area.. other qualifier is there should be mountains available to haul huge weights up the mountain. The storage aspect is so appealing with gravity..hydro is just harvesting gravity..but harvesting lighting and in effect tapping into lightning would be cool...We should be able to work out if the investment could show a good return.
I just the answer to how much a watt is worth can be worked outcfrim my electricity bill as a ruff indicator a price☺
Alex

[pmrid]

It would be a lot simpler (and less dangerous) to harvest all the rain that falls on your rural retreat Alex. For every inch (25mm) that falls on say 1 hectare, you have the potential to capture 250,000 liters of water. Use solar to pump it uphill during the day into a holding tank farm and generate hydro by releasing it downhill overnight. Then repeat the cycle.

:lol::lol::lol:

Peter

[xelasnave]

Actually forget the mountains and lifting weight the many little motor could run a big or many big flywheels that are as efficient or more so than batteries...although the weight on the mountain would be good for storage over time..ince the weight is up top you can store that rnergy for ever...thats gotta be a selling feature control over supply without seasonal pressures ..higher and lower energy demands.
So we keep the weight up the mountain and store it in batteries for flexibility in supply..
So much to think about.☺
Alex

[xelasnave]

Peter this idea means we can buy rhe center of Africa for a so or rent it with an option to buy...and set up stations that can supply the world with exceptional cheap and clean stoable energy...
So lets assume we can put all the competion out of business on the unevidenced assumption that lightning energy will be real cheap.. so to rule the market we need to control as much as we can without breaching National or International laws as to wanting all the pie...we use the profit to but out whats left of the competition...as many companies as it takes...
Peter water storage is a great way to save energy although evapoeation can eat into the efficiency of the system ..work done to get it up to storage or capital required to build a water collection surface..a good cheap way is the surface the catchment area...
I wonder what weight and system (size) to say store energy from solar panels ...
Actually thinking more and thinking a good working model harvest the energy that hits the house hill over a year (if you put a big rod on top of the wind generator tower...and harvest maybe a couple of billion wstts a year...what is a watt worth must be answered ..I will ask the phone and this nice lady will tell me the answer☺
Alex

[xelasnave]

My ruff sums says $200,000 per strike assuming 80% efficiency loss and 25cents a kw being a cheap price...so return on investment allows for say 1million per strike per year approach...so would a million dollars build a device that converts a billion watts into stored energy...
That lightning is going to pay for the inverter it ruined. ..I dont forget☺
Now how to make dinner with not much in the fridge..
Alex

[Wavytone]

Has been done, Alex, and it’s simpler.

In essence a mountain of high voltage capacitors are connected in series to collect the charge when a bolt strikes a lighting rod. Afterwards the capacitors are switched so they are connected in parallel to produce a lower voltage for discharging to power a load, and in paralleling them this gives an extremely high amp-hour storage capacity.

This technique was used to charge capacitors supplying a linear accelerator and gathered enough power from lightning to run a town.

From an electrical safety perspective it was extremely hazardous and when parts failed during charging the damage tended to be catastrophic.

[DarkArts]

Surely I'm not the only one thinking ...

"One point twenty-one jiggawatts". ;)

[xelasnave]

So how many capacitors do I need to get it rolling?

Thanks for that Wavy its just one less thing I have to worry about in my quest to help humanity☺

Alex

[leon]

Alex what are we going to do with you :shrug:

Leon:thumbsup:

[Wavytone]

Well, while 1 billion joules next per strike seems a lot and effective for powering several houses, the problem is what happens when the load is scaled to the size of a decent size town of say 100,000 with loads rather more than a 60W lightbulb. Over the area of the town it can’t collect enough strikes to run it without a tropical storm delivering a strike every few seconds.

Can’t do that every night.

Do the maths on your household useage and a billion joules doesn’t go far, for example an electric oven cooking a pizza uses about 10 million joules, and aircon for a typical house running 8 hours 100 million joules. You’d need a lightning bolt every third day, per house.

[xelasnave]

Old folks home and no phone☺
Alex

[xelasnave]

My problem is I cant get my head around joules and what energy and power.
I read a bolt gives one billion watts and cant figure how that translates to usable energy.
Still I think raising a weight or spinning up flywheels must be a better approach than capacitors.
And of course units would need to be placed where there is regular lightning.
Anyways I have moved onto faster that light travel☺...not really.
Alex

[sil]

A ginormous lightning rod made of a tube of piezo crystals and peltiers?
that way the wasted shockwave/sound energy is harvested along with the temperature differential? could be made into a belt for hipsters being tased to continue to youtube selfies.

we have had the technology to have nuclear batteries for decades, but the word "nuclear" evidentally causes cancer and death. like the word " mercury".

we have had lots of methods to harness energy in tiny amounts pretty much continuously (think batteryless watches) if people stopped thinking in terms of "one solution to rule them all and a dark patent to bind it to my bank account". we could have piezo crystals that take compression energy and convert to electrical say in our shoes so every step we take we harness energy, same with light sensitive tech etc, peltiers to take temp differentials to electricty, (think athletics clothing)stored in supercaps with induction sytems to everywhere to drain the stored energy into larger community storage systems. so maybe threads in our underwear and in every chair to transfer inductively the energy, floor mats that do the same, parking spaces doing the same to harvest and charge electric vehicles etc.
can all be done, but well, people are @#%^%%$%# self centered b%$#rds and wont work individually let along cumulatively for the collective good unless they get something in return.i get emails from people asking about my treatment donations wanting to know what they get in return if the donate. they definitely get thanks and if it works out I'll get the use of my arm and leg back and hopefully a chance to cure all the ailmenmts piling up as a result of the body weakness no the left side of my body. evidentally giving someone their arm back is not enough reason to help someone. So yes the human race can burn as far as i'm concerned and well deserved it'll be.

[xelasnave]

Steve I like your thinking.
Imagine what we could do if all the resources wasted on so many usless things from superstion to fashion could be used to develop better energy and battle stars.
Alex