Is it possible to store & use electricity from Lightning ?

Answer 1

Possible? Yes. Practical, no.

However, there was that scene in "back to the future."

Answer 2

Storing the electricity is not the problem, but capturing it is. The amount of electricity in a single stroke of lightning is tremendous (100,000,000 volts ), as is the amperage involved ( 200,000 amps ) and the heat produced in the process ( 54,000 degrees )

There have been many mnay experiments in this, and most of them result in a smoking chared pile of rubble afterwards. It's been tried since the days of Benjamin Franklin.

Currently the protection systems we have in place simply give lightning a path to ground, and divert it from things we would rather not have it strike.

So the overall answer is not yet - it is possible in theory, but we would need to develop materials that can withstand the effects of a lightning strike.

Answer 3

As impressing as the energy of a lightning may be – not much comes of it due to the extremely short duration of the stroke. No more usable energy than an average of 40 kilowatt hours results. Even if it could be captured in a kind of thunderstorm power station – which is technically impossible –, it would not be worth the effort. And besides: What would be an appropriate site for such a power station, to ensure that it would be supplied with enough lightning strikes every day?

Answer 4

*****HIGH DANGER*****

If you were to build a bunch of high capacity leyden jars you could in theory capture and store electricity for future use. You would need to rig up the appropriate circuits to slowly dole out the electricity and keep it from discharging all at once. If you live in an area of high lightning strikes you could in theory set up a lightning rod, establish your array of L-jars and make your circuitry to use the collected lightning. this would be more of a novelty project just for the sake of saying, "look what I made" rather than a practical approach to go "off the grid". Also since you would be working with high amperage high voltage electricity you must be VERY CAREFUL if you decide to do anything of the type. this type of thing can kill as quickly as a lightning bolt.

*****HIGH DANGER*****



There are some areas of the mountainous desert regions of arizona and new mexico that are prone to lightning strike almost every day of the year.

Answer 5

It's posssible, but dangerous deal. But if you can design such an electricity energy storage, you'd have problem getting it recharged because you never know exaclty when and where another lightning strike is going to occur.

Answer 6

Yes but highly impractical since you can not control when lightning will hit next

Answer 7

No it is too unpredictible, plus trying to capture and store it has been impossible SO FAR. I know that there a many other solutions to this have been squashed, people get silenced for this ya know.

Answer 8

yes,if you are ever struck you will find that you can read in bed at night with no lights on for months.

Answer 9

ya one day it is