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ExploratoryCucumber t1_j4r3h6y wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,386,947)

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

Replying to ExploratoryCucumber (#1,387,566)

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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mattjouff t1_j4sgom7 wrote

That one poor Birb flying at the wrong place at the wrong time

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NetAFut t1_j4sk7kd wrote

Seems like that could make one hell of a weapon.

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TastyBullfrog2755 t1_j4sn511 wrote

Directed lightning strikes? No chance of that being used for blowing stuff up!

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frolfergolfer t1_j4stoz1 wrote

This would've made things a lot easier for Doc Brown

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xdrixn_mp3 t1_j4tk2ma wrote

Use it to guide the lightning and charge batteries to power a city.

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sjiveru t1_j4tlhcw wrote

For those of you wondering (like I did), the amount of power required to fire a laser large enough to redirect lighting is much higher than the amount of power you could generate by taking advantage of the energy in that lightning. It's useful for moving lightning away from problem targets, but not useful for power generation.

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