3 ms·

If you could harvest it with 100% efficiency you'd still save less than $2000 in electricity (assuming 5e9 joules in a lightning bolt).

nine_k 7y ago
I bet cable maintenance in mountains costs more.
- bastawhiz 7y ago
  It's a cell tower. It needs cables anyway. And being a cell tower, it also likely needs to be fairly close to actual humans anyway, so the cables it needs likely aren't even that long. Not to mention the one-off R&D investment you'd be making, along with all the specialty hardware (and its up-front costs), training, etc. involved in capturing lightning. The savings just isn't even remotely worth it.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    The savings just isn't even remotely worth it. Except it would be new technology, could be patented etc. It's mostly in fiction that fixing X for one person or situation doesn't proliferate into a new way to handle X altogether, and that's done in fiction so the storyline can save the day and then keep pretending we totally live in the same universe as actual reality.
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      >> The savings just isn't even remotely worth it. > Except it would be new technology, could be patented etc. I don't think this works. New technology can only spread if it is worth it. Developing technology for the sake of having new technology is almost always worse than nothing; you would not expect it to proliferate into a new way to handle anything.
      - DoreenMichele 7y ago
        My point is "If you think of it as just a solution for this one cell tower, sure, it's not worth it. But if you think of it as new technology that will be used in many situations, then development costs can make sense." Of course, it doesn't guarantee success.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    It's a cell tower. It needs cables anyway. I've seen plenty of remote communications towers that do not have cables. Solar powered with generator backup and microwave relays to the next hop. It's SOP in the railroad industry, and how Sprint got its first backbone. (The "SPR" in "Sprint" is Southern Pacific Railroad.)
    - vvanders 7y ago
      Yup, the local WISP does the same thing. Relay high up on the mountains and ptp link back to the main office.
    - rootsudo 7y ago
      TIL. Wow!
- planteen 7y ago
  Maybe, but lightning only occurs in warm months. If you are going off grid anyway, wouldn't you want something that works year round like wind or solar?
NullPrefix 7y ago
Is that $2000 figure for a single discharge or a yearly figure already multiplied by 100 (days)?
- amelius 7y ago
  1kWh = 3.6e6 joules 1 lightning bolt = 5e9/3.6e6 = 1389 kWh price of energy = 0.10 $/kWh price of 1 lightning bolt = $138.90
  - Spare_account 7y ago
    I'll buy one

nine_k 7y ago

I bet cable maintenance in mountains costs more.

bastawhiz 7y ago
It's a cell tower. It needs cables anyway. And being a cell tower, it also likely needs to be fairly close to actual humans anyway, so the cables it needs likely aren't even that long. Not to mention the one-off R&D investment you'd be making, along with all the specialty hardware (and its up-front costs), training, etc. involved in capturing lightning. The savings just isn't even remotely worth it.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  The savings just isn't even remotely worth it. Except it would be new technology, could be patented etc. It's mostly in fiction that fixing X for one person or situation doesn't proliferate into a new way to handle X altogether, and that's done in fiction so the storyline can save the day and then keep pretending we totally live in the same universe as actual reality.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    >> The savings just isn't even remotely worth it. > Except it would be new technology, could be patented etc. I don't think this works. New technology can only spread if it is worth it. Developing technology for the sake of having new technology is almost always worse than nothing; you would not expect it to proliferate into a new way to handle anything.
    - DoreenMichele 7y ago
      My point is "If you think of it as just a solution for this one cell tower, sure, it's not worth it. But if you think of it as new technology that will be used in many situations, then development costs can make sense." Of course, it doesn't guarantee success.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  It's a cell tower. It needs cables anyway. I've seen plenty of remote communications towers that do not have cables. Solar powered with generator backup and microwave relays to the next hop. It's SOP in the railroad industry, and how Sprint got its first backbone. (The "SPR" in "Sprint" is Southern Pacific Railroad.)
  - vvanders 7y ago
    Yup, the local WISP does the same thing. Relay high up on the mountains and ptp link back to the main office.
  - rootsudo 7y ago
    TIL. Wow!
planteen 7y ago
Maybe, but lightning only occurs in warm months. If you are going off grid anyway, wouldn't you want something that works year round like wind or solar?

NullPrefix 7y ago

Is that $2000 figure for a single discharge or a yearly figure already multiplied by 100 (days)?

amelius 7y ago
1kWh = 3.6e6 joules 1 lightning bolt = 5e9/3.6e6 = 1389 kWh price of energy = 0.10 $/kWh price of 1 lightning bolt = $138.90
- Spare_account 7y ago
  I'll buy one