Ok question about Lightning from thunder storms etc?

Question

Ok so I know that in a bolt of lightning there is like over a million watts of power. So why is there no tech. on trying to capture and harness this power. It just seems like a few lightning strikes captured could power a city for quite some time.

Answer 1

It's a huge burst of power.  Millions of volts and many thousands of amps.  We simply can not build anything right now that can absorb that much energy in the split second it flows.  It would be nice to be able to harness that much power and dish it out as needed.  In this country it would solve our energy crisis.

It's been shown that we can cause a lightning strike on demand during a thunderstorm but catching the power is still beyond our abilities.

Answer 2

My guess is that the strikes are too quick; they wouldn't be able to capture them fast enough. Besides, humans should keep their noses out of Mother Nature anyway.

Answer 3

probably because humans can't harness weather patterns. Its because of the protons and electrons found in clouds and the ground that lightning is produced so if they had a machine that could simulate that effect then yeh why not

Answer 4

We cannot predict when or where lightning will strike, and the density of lightning strikes in the majority of the country is relatively sparse.  So in order to make a system big enough to be efficient at collecting lightning would likely need to cover 100 square miles or possibly more.  Also, I don't know much about the technology something like this would require, but I wouldn't be surprised a lightning bolt is too powerful to be captured by modern technology...as lightning is powerful enough to short-out the most advanced electrical systems.