3 ms·
This was my first thought while reading the article - surely if we can intentionally get hit by lightning, we can find a way to harness that energy. https://en
by craigds 6y ago
This was my first thought while reading the article - surely if we can intentionally get hit by lightning, we can find a way to harness that energy.
https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/is-there-a-way-to-harness-electricity-from-lightning/ https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/is-there-... discusses the idea a bit. TLDR is: it probably isn't worth it :/
- moneytide1 6y agoAn electrolaser is designed to briefly pulse a high power beam that creates a conductive plasma channel (atmospheric conduit). If natural lightening is being coaxed, then we are essentially redirecting natural electrostatic balance into some focused work (Wardenclyffe?). The only "capacitor" I know of large enough to handle this amount of instant power is the one used to "spark" JET tokamak fusion [1]. There are two 775 ton flywheels that can dispense over 3 GJ instantly and "charge" via grid feed rate of around 8MW. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus