According to a very reliable source (Wikipedia), a lightning discharge is typically around a gigavolt and 30-400kA, for 10s of uS. Preceding that, there is 100s of mS of establishing an ion channel. There are 100s of amps there. If my very reliable source is completely wrong, please let me know. But regardless, it is still a HUGE amount of power, even when you account for time and Wikepedia.
So shouldn't there be some way to convert this energy into stored energy and then use it to power a city or whatever? I know that you would need 50 feet of teflon to insulate a gigavolt, but even with these challenges wouldn't there be some way? Is there any research on the subject or promising ideas, or is it just too impractical with such high voltages? And even if this is not possible, would it be possible to make a high voltage capacitor or something to do lightning tests later or for other scientific purposes where extremely high voltage is needed?
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So shouldn't there be some way to convert this energy into stored energy and then use it to power a city or whatever? I know that you would need 50 feet of teflon to insulate a gigavolt, but even with these challenges wouldn't there be some way? Is there any research on the subject or promising ideas, or is it just too impractical with such high voltages? And even if this is not possible, would it be possible to make a high voltage capacitor or something to do lightning tests later or for other scientific purposes where extremely high voltage is needed?
Live Wire