If we can harvest lightning, do we still need to generate electricity?

The discovery and application of electricity has brought about earth-shaking changes to human society. In the past 300 years, the rapid development of human civilization is inseparable from the contribution of electricity. When it comes to the discovery and application of electricity, we immediately think of a name, Franklin.

That's right, it was Franklin who proved through a kite that lightning in the sky and electricity on the ground are the same thing. On a thunderstorm day in 1752, Franklin released a kite with a key tied to it into the air with a metal wire. The metal wire wet by the rain guided the lightning between his hand and the key. From then on, mankind had a breakthrough in the understanding of electricity. Nearly 70 years later, in 1821, Faraday invented the electric motor. Ten years later, Faraday, who discovered electromagnetic induction, created the first generator in human history that could continuously generate electric current. From then on, mankind could no longer live without electricity. For modern people, every day without electricity is unbearable, but electricity does not appear out of thin air. We need to generate electricity to meet human demand for electricity.

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Can we only generate electricity artificially? Or can we harvest electricity directly from nature?

This idea has a theoretical basis, because electricity was not invented by humans, it has existed in nature since the beginning, and Franklin and other scientists' research is just to discover it and apply it. When it comes to electricity in nature, the lightning in the sky is what we are most familiar with, and Franklin also proved through the kite experiment that lightning in the sky and electricity on the ground are the same thing, that is, if we can collect lightning and convert it into electricity, we can use it for human use.

So how much electrical energy does a lightning bolt contain? If we convert it into the "degrees" we are familiar with, how many kilowatt-hours of electricity does it correspond to? First, let's talk about what lightning is and how it is produced. Lightning is simply the discharge phenomenon between clouds, between clouds and the ground, and between various parts inside clouds, so why does discharge occur?

Cumulonimbus clouds generate electric charges, with the top layer of the cloud being positive and the bottom layer being negative. At the same time, positive charges are also generated on the ground that move with the clouds.

As the saying goes, like repels like, and opposites attract. Positive and negative charges always want to overcome difficulties and embrace each other, but the problem is that air is not a good conductor, so positive charges can only go out to look for opportunities. They attach themselves to tall trees, the tops of buildings, and even to human bodies. At the same time, negative charges are not idle either. They try to reach down and try to embrace the positive charges. Their hands stretch longer and longer. Finally, the positive and negative charges overcome many obstacles and connect together. Then a huge current rushes from the ground to the clouds, and a lightning bolt that cuts through the night sky is born.

It is so difficult for positive and negative charges to embrace each other. In order to overcome the obstruction of air, they must have extremely strong voltage, so lightning looks so majestic. So is this majestic lightning just for show, or is it really powerful? How much electricity does it contain?

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The lightning we see on a daily basis varies in size and duration, and the amount of electricity contained in different lightning bolts varies greatly.

There is no accurate statistics on how much electricity a lightning bolt contains. Generally speaking, the energy contained in ordinary lightning we usually see is about 1 billion joules. According to 1kw/h=3600000 joules, 1 billion joules is about 277 kWh. For an average family of three, the monthly electricity consumption is about 200 kWh, which means that a lightning bolt can power a family of three for one and a half months.

It seems that this is not too much. Take Beijing, the capital, for example. The city has a total permanent population of about 6.68 million households, with an average of 2.45 people per household. So we roughly calculate that one lightning bolt can supply electricity for two households for a month, so 3.34 million lightning bolts need to be captured in a month to meet the city's electricity demand. It seems that it is unreliable to rely on collecting lightning to replace power generation.

However, the above example is of ordinary lightning with a power of 1 billion joules. In nature, the size of lightning varies greatly.

On October 31, 2018, the longest lightning was recorded in Brazil, with a length of 709 kilometers from beginning to end. On March 4, 2019, the longest lightning was recorded in northern Argentina, which lasted 16.73 seconds. Such giant lightning usually contains extremely strong currents, and the energy contained in it can even reach more than 100,000 times that of ordinary lightning. If it is such a lightning, one lightning can meet the electricity needs of 200,000 households.

It's a pity that it is impossible to collect lightning for human use. Because lightning is fast and has a high voltage, it is more dangerous than any man-made electricity. If a human or other creature is struck by lightning, the possibility of survival is basically zero. Therefore, lightning cannot be collected. Not only can it not be collected, but we must also be careful to prevent lightning strikes on rainy days.