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ExploratoryCucumber t1_j4r3h6y wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Laser-guided lightning. Study demonstrates a powerful laser aimed at the sky that can create a virtual lightning rod and divert the path of lightning strikes. The findings may pave the way for better lightning protection methods for critical infrastructure. by MistWeaver80

The problem with attempting to store lightning as energy is the bursty nature of it.

Collecting a bunch of energy over a day, or an hour, or whatever is fine.

Collecting a bunch of energy in less than a second is gonna absolutely destroy virtually all infrastructure we can currently make.

So while it's theoretically possible to do, in practice it's not something we're ready for.

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Yen1969 t1_j4rax2b wrote

Electricity and water don't mix, unless you are using water as an analogy. Then it works so well basically all the time.

The way I see it, you can fill a reservoir from lots of little streams, or even massive rivers. Sending 8.4 cubic miles of water (77.3 trillion pounds) at Hoover dam all at once (the reservoir's capacity), and it's gonna fail.

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