It seems obvious that when lightening strikes thousands of volts of electricity are discharged instantly. This can not be harnessed because of its high intensity. Surely there must be a build-up of static before it reaches this point.
I am risking showing my ignorance but could not the clouds be regarded as a kind of battery storing electricity that could be tapped into. The answer to our energy problems could be drifting around above our heads.
I have put my head above the parapet and I now expect to have it blown off.
2007-02-28 01:49:24 · 11 answers · asked by oldtimer 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Interesting. Tesla had an idea of tapping the atmosphere of its electricity via electromagnetism. He imagined an electromagnetic belt circling the planet from which we could generate electricity via induction. In theory this could work. Theory often clashes with reality when the practical considerations are factored in. In a thunderstorm things are moving pretty fast inside, not to mention the line of storms itself. So I guess you would need to have a pretty dynamic system to track with the weather, which is by nature, dynamic. It would be like trying to steal some energy from an electron: the thing just doesn't stand still so trying to catch it would be futile. You'd spend more energy than you could tap just trying.
2007-02-28 02:00:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm no expert in the weather field but to my knowledge a good amount of the lightning people witness everyday does not actually start in the clouds but here on the ground. That being said, I imagine that there is not much static electricity in the clouds themselves. It would probably be in the air itself. As to why we don't harness this energy to power our environment, I'm not sure. I believe it would be quite difficult to draw electric power out of the air but then again I'm no scientist.
2007-02-28 03:33:14 · answer #2 · answered by Jeremy S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes we need to wait for a thunder cloud, quite big one to pass over head fly up into it.Build a electrical sub station on it, just in time to harness all that power.
2007-02-28 01:57:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Many people have 'put their heads above the parapet' and tapped into the power of lightning but they seldom do it again!
2007-02-28 01:58:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
personally i say we just build a skyscraper that is actually just one huge ceramic capaciter , with a rod extending up into the air.. we could harness lightning then.
the cost would be huge.... huuuuge.
on average each strike is about 144kw but up to 87,600kw
2007-02-28 02:45:15 · answer #5 · answered by causalitist 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theoretically your idea is a decent one. Unfortunately you'd need a very tall collector tower and clouds and storms tend to move about.
Nice try though.
2007-03-01 08:01:38 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a good question and the reason is that we have no way "yet" to convert that static energy into an energy that is usefull to us.
2007-02-28 01:57:27 · answer #7 · answered by stoutseun69 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's too unstable.
2007-02-28 01:54:24 · answer #8 · answered by redman 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because it is not as regular as wind or sunlight......but nice try
2007-02-28 01:53:36 · answer #9 · answered by Fox Hunter 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thats not possible is it
2007-03-01 21:49:04 · answer #10 · answered by dream theatre 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋