4 ms·
Apparently a single lightning strike contains the equivalent of about 40 gallons of gasoline. It’s very powerful but not that significant on the scale of a whol
by janalsncm 2y ago
Apparently a single lightning strike contains the equivalent of about 40 gallons of gasoline. It’s very powerful but not that significant on the scale of a whole city.
In fact a quick back of the napkin math suggests it would only power a city of a million people for half a second.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvesting_lightning_energy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvesting_lightning_energy
- hinkley 2y agoI wonder what the average property damage is per strike. And if forcing lightning reduces or changes storm power. Maybe for preventative reasons you put them outside of towns and such.
- barbazoo 2y agoMaybe to avoid wildfires caused by lightning strikes, happens a lot up here in BC.
- rybosome 2y agoThis comment made me wonder about the idea of harvesting lightning as a power source. Obviously it’s incredibly challenging, but I wondered if we had magic sci-fi technology that allowed it, how useful would it be? Back of the napkin math suggests that even with theoretically perfect prediction, capture, storage and distribution you’d still get at best ~1% of the US’ energy through lightning capture.
- barbazoo 2y agoWe don't even universally accept that sun and wind could be enough to power everything we ever want to do. Not sure how well lightning harvesting will be received.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> harvesting lightning as a power source Recontextualise it as harvesting electrostatic potential from the atmosphere and you see that potential is driven by the Sun.