Has anyone/any company invested money into harnessing the power of lightening,is it possible?

Question

Has anyone/any company invested money into harnessing the power of lightening,is it possible?

Answer 1

i would assume that lightening being so inconsistent you would not be able to constantly store enough electricityuntil the next lightning storm happens

Answer 2

The problem is: electricity is  very difficult to store. That's why in some countries you can get your electricity cheaper at night than during daytime. Less people use it at night and the nuclear power plants can't just shut down for the night.

One way to store energy would be e.g. to pump water up and then use it to power turbines when the need is great. But the mechanical loss is so great that it is not really worth it.

When it comes to lightning, an incredible electrical energy is released in a fraction of a second. How would you harness that?

Maybe  with time we may extract energy from the difference of static energy between the clouds and earth. But the lightning itself? I think not.

Answer 3

probably a lot have tried, but they seem to have disappeared in a flash.

That american chap with a kite with a key on the string, out in the rain in an electrical storm, was the lucky one. He ended up with long grey frizzy hair, a message there.

magooo.

Answer 4

The first electrical experiments and close study of lighting and its powers was carried out by Doctor Benjamin Franklin FRS.

According to his studies, lighting is harmless.

Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts UniversityThe Electrical Writings of Benjamin Franklin (screen format PDF - 2.35MB) ... The introduction gives some history of electrical studies and Franklin’s role, ...

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/pe...  

Capturing and harnessing electricity from storms. . . .think not, not yet anyway.

Harness Tornado's for Electrical Power?? Text - Physics Forums Library21 Dec 2005 ... Archived thread of Harness Tornado's for Electrical Power?? from the ... the vorticity is produced quite high up in the associated storm ...

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/ind...

Problem with electric storms is that the lighting flash is of such awesome magnitude that it would probably destroy utterly any equipment set up to capture it's power.  

The best I have heard of is allowing lighting to hit a copper rod which runs down the side of a church steeple and allow this 'power' to drain safely to Earth.

Electricity from Lightning - How hard would it be to build an array of lighting rods to capture periodic thunderstorm electricity? The biggest hurdle would really be creating power ...

http://www.peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...

Lightning strike - massive power surge. . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLJ6oqToK...

Answer 5

Tesla