> A lightning may contain between 200 and 2000 kWh of energy. There isn't any capacitor or inductor bank that large that could contain this amount of energy tha

> A lightning may contain between 200 and 2000 kWh of energy. There isn't any capacitor or inductor bank that large that could contain this amount of energy that fast. Here's the thing though: The Earth-sky system is a big capacitor, which discharges when its dialectric (air) breaks down to form lightning. You can bleed this capacitor slowly before it discharges. I believe that one way to do it is with lightning rods. Supposedly, the spiky tip of the rod concentrates charge, causing a strong local E-field which ionizes the air a little, letting a little current flow. One theory is that this prevents lightning from striking, by preventing too high a potential from building up. If so, we may be able to harvest "lightning power" at relatively high voltages but low currents, using spiky, lightning-rod -type structures, say on top of wind turbines, that trickle into our own capacitors and power electronics. Then, you would see nothing dramatic at all, but maybe, over the course of a few years, you would see a statistically-significant reduction in the number of lightning strikes. At most, maybe you'd occasionally see some St. Elmo's Fire on the spikes. At massive scales you could imagine this messing with the nitrogen cycle -- I believe certain nitrogen compounds important to plants are made by lightning -- but that seems like a pretty far-off concern. Actually, this is a pretty good article. Lots of good work back in the mid 1700s by people like Ben Franklin: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity#History https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity#Hist... Or, check out this delightful website: https://ionpowergroup.com/ https://ionpowergroup.com/. Deep in the bowels of Government Science you can still find people who wear socks with sandals.