Ever Wondered How Much Electricity is Generated by Lightning?
Thunder and lightning can be both a beautiful and frightening phenomenon – Find out how much energy lightning generates below…
Renewable energy is being worked on every day by scientists across the world, but has anyone ever tried to harness energy from lightning? And would it work if they could? Read this blog post to find out more about electricity generated from lightning strikes.
With an average bolt of lightning striking from cloud to ground containing roughly one billion (1,000,000,000) joules of energy, that is a lot of power in every lightning bolt!
Furthermore, each year, over one and a half billion lightning flashes are released into our atmosphere, so you can imagine just how much energy is created by this one source alone. But can we capture this energy and feed it back into our cities, businesses and homes? We will take you through the process of how energy can be taken from electricity and the benefits it can bring to us.
Real Clear Science, National Geographic, Stormwise
How do we take energy from a lightning bolt?
So, you must be thinking, to take energy from a lightning bolt, that must mean we know where lightning will likely strike, and when. Lightning is an unpredictable weather change, with very few lightning bolts ever reaching the ground.
Not only are lightning strikes unpredictable they generate so much energy that when an object is hit by lightning it can be heated to over 20,000 degrees. So how do we capture this energy and turn it into a usable form of energy?
With all of the heat that is generated from a lightning bolt due to its energy, that would surely mean that you’d be able to heat thousands of homes. Well, sadly not. The five billion joules which are in a lightning bolt only amount to 1,400kWh which would only generate enough power to power an average UK home for four months. Which for the work that would be put in to allow the energy to be usable wouldn’t be worth the effort.
What other alternative sources of power are there?
There have been a lot of developments in energy generation over the past few years, many of which have the potential to change how we procure our energy forever…
Piezoelectric devices: These are devices that are powered by kinetic energy (movement/ vibrations)
Solar power: Power generated by the sun
Carbon Nano Tubes: These are a more developed version of solar panels, they use smart materials and design to get the most out of the energy that can be captured by the sun
Fracking: Although controversial to some, nations across the world are currently experimenting with how best to extract natural gas via hydraulic fracturing
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