why cant we generate static the same as nature to create ligtning as a sustainable power?

Answer 1

(About my English, I'm a Russian)

Actually, we can. Many designs of electrostatic generators are known: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_generator.
Among them there are simple devices, known for centuries, that can produce electric discharges of several centimeters length, they can be found in physics laboratories in any school.
You roll a handle not long, then watch a discharge, smell ozone... But as a power source they are very inefficient. Most of provided mechanical energy is lost in friction. As well as Mother Nature gets only a tiny part of kinetic energy of moving air masses transformed into lightnings. And lightnings themselves are events of loosing that energy, dissipating it.
Industrial generators efficiency usually greater than 90%, i.e. they transform almost all provided mechanical energy into electric power. While an electrostatic generator transforms only a small part.

Answer 2

We can, as many of the posters above have described, tho basically these methods require power input - mechanical or electrical - and the power in has to be at least as much as the power out.

But if you're actually asking why can't we harness the energy that creates lightning, the answer is we can. But one example of what it would take is to loft thousands of wire per square mile, perhaps by balloon, thousands of feet into the air. This is "all" it takes, yet is both impractical in most locations and doesn't yield much energy per dollar invested.

Though lightning looks impressive, "...An average bolt of negative lightning carries a current of 40 kA (kiloamperes), although some bolts can be up to 120 kA, and transfers a charge of 5 coulombs and 500 MJ (megajoules), or enough energy to power a 100 watt lightbulb for just under two months"....[wikipedia].

That's really not a heck of a lot of juice compared to that of a grid of a city.

Answer 3

The static that is generated naturally to create lightning occurs due to the movement of the air and water/ice within clouds. This movement is driven by heat which ultimately comes from the sun.

While the lightning appears to occur without any power input, it actually requires a lot of power from the sun to generate it. To create artificial lightning also requires some power input (a van de Graaf generator is one machine that can do the job), and since all machines are less than 100% efficient, you would get less power out than you put in.

Also, lighting releases a lot of power in a very short period of time which makes it difficult to control (currents of up to 100000 amps and voltages of many millions of volts a not unknown)

Answer 4

It takes energy to create static electricity. It takes energy to create lightning. But that occurs naturally in weather systems.

Answer 5

we can create static electricity with a windhurst machine or a van de graf generater, its just true that we need to put energy in to get energy out so some one would need to power that van de graf generator some how, its just lightning occurs naturally

Answer 6

voltage level of lightening is too high too handle.
we dont have any insulation material of that much rating to prepare a machine to trap it or store it.