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Lightning power!
Topic Started: Aug 13 2009, 12:17 PM (988 Views)
Scrublord
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Do you think it would be possible to harness the electricity from lightning as a renewable source of energy? I'm actually surprised how little consideration this has gotten as a potential power source, given that a single lightning strike has enough electricity to power New York City for a month.
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Ànraich
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Well the question is, what do you do for the hundreds of days a year there is no lightning? How do you store it all without losing any of the energy? How do you coordinate a large scale lightning harvest to power an entire nation?
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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lamna
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As a power source, it's pretty useless. It you get too much power for too short a time. There is no way to collect or store the power. It would be like using Dynamite to fuel a car.
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Sounds like something from wacky racers...
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Well, we don't have to wait for it to strike, we can MAKE it strike.

Attach wires to rockets and launch them into the clouds, which will already have a charge to them, this would create a path for the electricity down, lightning that follows the wire.

My concern is how could we actually store the energy without blowing out generators or completely knocking the grid off.
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ATEK Azul
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1.21 gigawats of energy!!! Oh and make sure to reach 88 mph lol.

Sorry could not resist. Any way lightning is a good suorce but getting it and storing it on a regular bases would be the main problems.
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Canis Lupis
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Solar is way better than lightning. Lighting could easily blow out generators. And we don't know when and where it could strike. Weather is unpredictable. Even if we control it. There are just way too many variables.



In fact, that's what the book I'm currently working on is about. It's called "2012" (it is in no way related to the doomsday prophecy). Here's a brief synopsis:

In "2012": in an effort to reach their 2025 goal of weather weaponry being used for war, the USA has established HAARP (an acronym for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (yes, it's a real thing. It was established in 1993)) to study Nikola Tesla's theory of weather modification.

This theory, simply put, is that ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) waves could be emitted into the ionosphere and cause it to bulge. This forces the stratosphere to fill in the gap, thus changing the jetstream (which carries moisture across the planet). Potentially, this could cause extreme drought, extreme rain, earthquakes (and, if particular faults are hit, tsunamis), twister, and hurricanes. Allegedly, HAARP was established to study the ionosphere. But in reality, HAARP is for changing the weather and using it against their enemies.

In the book, HAARP is focused on modifying the Middle Eastern weather. But, as you know, weather is unpredictable. So instead of modifying the Middle Eastern weather, HAARP accidentally modifies the USA weather, leading to drastic changes. Torrential rain affects the East Coast, earthquakes ravage the nation's major faultlines, freak lightning storms affect major metropolitan areas, drought ravages the Central United States, hurricanes ravage the Gulf Coast, and tsunamis affect the Pacific Rim (some tsunamis also hit the East Coast).

All in all, a story of survival in unpredicatble situations and the dangers of trying to control unpredictable systems. Basically, the ZFT manifesto.


So what do you think of that idea?
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ATEK Azul
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Sounds like an awsome book I hope to read it some day or watch any movie made from it.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Thank you.
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Scrublord
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Well, if a lightning rod were attached to the top of a building and fixed to a transformer and a battery, it could supply power to that building outside of the power grid.
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ATEK Azul
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True but the battery might over load or even the building itself which would cause problems.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

What you really want is to harness gravity waves in some way to generate electricity. The sun only shines about twelve hours a day; gravity is on day or night and available from matter itself.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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lamna
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The idea of using a rocket is silly. You would be better off burning the rocket fuel.
The wire would almost certainly melt and the transformer would be overloaded by the sudden surge.

To use gravity as a fuel you would need something for gravity to act on. Perhaps water. If you had water somewhere high up, then got it to flow down though turbines that might work.
Oh wait, we have those already.
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I find the Atlantropa Project very interesting, but given the massive problems that it would cause, it would probably be impractical.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

I mean using gravity itself somehow as a power source (which is why I bothered to say gravity waves instead of just gravity). And they've done that thing with sending rockets attached to a wire into a storm; they get hit by lightning pretty easily. Of course, then we come again to the problem of surges/storage.

EDIT: Whoa, I had to look up that project. That's the most awesome thing I've ever heard of. That a man would suggest a project on a scale so large it can only be called terraforming in the early 20th century is incredible. Not only that, but it would be entirely feasible given today's technology. Of course, you're probably better off building a nuclear power plant large enough to power all of Europe (and then some, to sell off to the North Africans).
Edited by Ànraich, Aug 14 2009, 10:46 AM.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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lamna
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It is a interesting idea, but the vast amounts of flooding, climate change and barrier to trade would stop it being useful. It was designed to supply a united Europe on the assumption that America and a united Red or Yellow Asia would be threats and a secure power supply would be more important than trade with them.

I have no idea how gravity could be harnessed in that way. I doubt that it can, and suspect if possible then we won't see anything like it until the next millennium.
Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
T.Neo
 
Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
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