Eh, lightning bolts are impressive on the scale of individuals but not on the scale of civilizations. The standard figure for the standard lightning bolt is 1

Eh, lightning bolts are impressive on the scale of individuals but not on the scale of civilizations. The standard figure for the standard lightning bolt is 1 billion joules, or about 250 kWh. If we assume this lightning bolt was a million times bigger, that's 250 GWh, which is a big number, but like 1/500th the annual crypto usage. Meanwhile, there are about 1.4 billion lightning strikes per year, so the total lightning energy is about 400 TWh/year. That's nothing to sneeze at, about 40% of China's annual electricity usage. But to harvest it you need a global system to perfectly capture every joule from every bolt (or more likely, bleed it off before the bolt would form). Assuming lightning strikes are equally likely over land and sea, you lose 70% of your energy right there -- now your peak harvest is 150 TWh. If you have a million installations scattered around the world -- each one harvesting the lightning-energy from about 150 sq km, that's 150 MWh/year, or about 17 kilowatts per installation -- and once you start adding losses and inefficiency you're probably lucky to get 1 kW.