If there is millions of voltages in lightning(thunder), why can't we utilize it for our day today life?

Question

If there is millions of voltages in lightning(thunder), why can't we utilize it for our day today life?

Answer 1

for one it is static electricity, and two lightning only strikes in lightning storms

Answer 2

The same energy that makes lightning we can already tap into.

And that is.... solar energy and its byproducts, wind and hydro. Much more useful to do that than trying to harness an unpredictable and hard-to-handle source like lightning.

Answer 3

The article in my source addresses the power of lightning and it's utilization. There are several questions concerning this, but the most pertinent are (a) how to harness that power, and (b) whether there are substantial reasons not to.

Even if a harnessing method were derived, the primary drawback of lightning power is its inconsistency. Storms might come regularly into some regions, but would enough lightning potential fall within the range of the device to make it worth while? See NOVA's special on Lightning (1989), to see how difficult it is to draw down lightning even in the most prone areas, using rockets with teathers attached.(http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Lightning_N...

How hard would it be to build a power plant that harnesses the electricity generated by lightning? Then, store the electricity and use it on-demand on the electric grid? Pie-In-The-Sky?

This concept is perhaps not as impractical as it once was. The main limiting factor of implementing a lightning capturing scheme such as this was the inability to be able to store large amounts of electricity for later use. However, new Utility Scale Battery technology or other energy storage technologies such as Flywheels or Capacitors could be used to store the electricity captured from lightning in massive quanties, for later grid use.

Obviously, a lightning capturing power plant would only be practical in regions with frequent thunderstorms, such as Florida.

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 plant infrastructure that could survive the harsh surges created by lightning strikes, but even that seems possible with current technology and materials. Electrical and building design engineers could come up with an innovative way to make it work. Specially designed buffer/insulation and transformer materials could be used to safely capture and harness the massive amounts of electricity generated during a lighting strike, and transfer it to large storage device for later use.

AJM

Answer 4

Very Good Question - a very difficult challenge for several reasons:

1. Lightning clouds occur in various position

2. Need a long conductor to bring the energy down to earth

3. Very difficult to convert this energy into a storage (i.e. battery or some other technology not yet invented).

4. Anything is possible, but may not be cost effective.

Answer 5

Yeah, you can't tell where it's going to land. Doesn't lightning have something to do also with nitrogen in the soil? So it's useful that way.

Answer 6

how would we store it, and or convert it..  

Answer 7

The main reason is that, we haven't developed in advanced technology in handling such high voltage. There is no means to store the high voltage. It this has happened, then we won't have power failure at all in the world. One heavy strike of lightning is more than enough to power up the world for one year.