How much energy is in lightning?

Lightning is the drainage of electricity caused by the imbalance between positive and negative charges that accumulate in thunder. Most of the lightning flashes occur between or within the clouds, but about 40 million thunderbolt strikes hit the Earth in the United States every year, according to the centers of control and prevention of diseases, which follow the injuries of strikes and deaths.

Is it possible to harness that energy to operate the entire communities? Here, we explore this question.

The amount of energy in lightning

Lightning produces 10 times more electricity than flows on high tension wires.

It also produces more hot than thermal energy than the sun’s surface, and sound energy (thunder) that can travel 25 miles.

Although only a second millimeter lasts, lightning flash is believed to produce up to 10 GW of electricity, which will be the sixth of all solar panels on the surface in the United States in 2021. Picking this energy, however, is not an easy task.

Can we harvest lightning energy?

Lightning carries or produces three forms of energy: electricity, heat and sound. In recent years, scientists have discovered questions:

• What if we can store this electricity to charge all electric cars soon to control our roads?
• Or pick up its intense heat to produce enough steam to install the turbine?
• Or convert enough sound to generate the electricity needed to produce carbon -free hydrogen fuel?

Electricity capture

Various attempts were made using high -voltage switch circles and magnetic capacitors to capture and store lightning energy. Many of the pending and active patents alike systems that can turn lightning to electricity. However, though no of these systems is used – at least widely.

As one of the studies explained, “This is not a complex scientific pledge, like fusion reactors or nuclear facilities.” In fact, we achieved Benjamin Franklin in the middle of the road with the invention of lightning bars, which attract lightning and head to the ground. The other half – overlooking it – is the difficult part.

The challenge in the energy excavation that carries in the lightning bark comes to safe levels.

The electricity network is already operating in this way: high tension transmission lines from power plants are transported at 345,000 volts, but through multiple sub -stations, electricity is implemented to regional levels and then to the neighborhood levels, until the power lines bear only 120 volts.

However, the transition to the lightning garden from millions from one billion to a billion – to a safer level is a more enormous task, which has not yet been achieved.

Harvesting

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the energy from lightning is brightly heats the air to about 50,000 ° F – from the surface of the sun.

Modern developments in heat capture and convert it into electricity may indicate a way to harvest the huge heating of Lightning. While magnets (central for most electricity generation) lose their magnetic power when they are heated, modern research has determined that small particles called Paramagnons act as semiconductors, able to convert heat into electricity.

Obtaining from this basic research to a practical product may occur first with more compatible heat sources, such as waste temperature from manufacturing or vehicles. Its application to lightning is a less urgent task.

Voice conversion

Anyone who has a phone knows that it is possible to convert electricity into sound waves. The opposite is also possible, and experiments are conducted all over the world to harvest the electricity.

The intense heat produced by lightning leads to the explosion of the surrounding air, resulting in the sound waves that we call thunder. A few hundred feet from its source, thunder can produce about 120 decibels. However, the current sources of proper energy from traffic and urban noise pollution are a nuisance for merit with harvesting experiences.

A look at the electricity harvest

With electricity, the supply should always meet the demand – otherwise, the system collapses and the power outage occurs. One of the challenges of Lightning Energy, as with other renewable energy sources, is its overlap.

The spread of lightning is less predictable in time and space than energy or solar energy. Lightning electricity storage is the most difficult part, not only because the power storage industry is still in its cradle, but because the storage devices themselves will need to bear one huge thunderbolt of electricity without damaging the device.

Political will (and thus research dollars) focus on the most vital technologies for renewable energy: water, wind and solar energy. Currently, the harvest of lightning will continue to be the pursuit of individual inventors who dream of being the next Benjamin Franklin.