This post is part of a series of Q&A’s with scientists who are crowdfunding their research on Experiment. Check out Daniel Helman’s project and many others at Experiment.com.
Tell us more about how we can use lightning for energy and material use. How does it work? What does the literature currently say about this as a realistic possibility?
Thanks for the question. Obviously, it’s not been done yet. There are a few different strategies that might work, for example, guiding lightning to strike inside a chamber filled with water, and using the steam to turn a turbine set up in an escape tunnel. There’s nothing in the scientific literature on this yet. In 2011, I wrote an article about harnessing lightning for electrical power, with the idea being to use inductors — placed close, but not too close — to harness only part of the energy. Using inductors or capacitors can be expensive compared to the power output, perhaps too expensive. For artificial lightning, it may be possible to incorporate ball lightning into a fusion reactor that won’t need magnetic containment, and will therefore be cheap enough to produce electricity widescale.
To jump back to possibilities: The practice of using rockets with a wire attached to induce a strike is well-documented and has been used successfully since the 1960s. A high tower would also work, and there are articles detailing tower strikes. What I’m doing is putting together a special topic journal issue for other scientists, so that they can submit their latest work in a venue specifically set up for the practical uses of lightning. In short, it’s an open question, and one that might be worthwhile to research.
There are a lot of critics that say that harnessing lightning for power isn’t possible. How do you respond to them?
I usually try and find out where their objection is, and then address that specifically. For example, if a person is looking at the cost of using capacitors to store the charge from a lightning discharge, they are likely correct in assuming that the economics might not work. But then I’ve been in touch with scientists who work in supercapacitors, and they are interested in the possibility of using them to harness power from lightning. That tells me the economics may not always be unfavorable. Note that what I’ve described is for a single method of harnessing lightning for power. There are other potential methods. And there is other work that has been done suggesting the possibility of using lightning not for power, but for materials processing. Asbestos, for example, can be made inert through melting by an arc of plasma. Lightning might take the place of the laboratory-generated arc.
There are a few other objections I’ve encountered. Lightning strikes aren’t that common in many places. To that, I definitely agree! If harnessing power from lightning is to be a possibility, then a power plant ought to be sited in a place that gets a lot of lightning. The same with another objection, that each strike doesn’t carry enough energy to make harnessing it profitable. Maybe. It depends on where you are sited, and what process you are using to harness the power, assuming that you have a strategy that might work. And there may not be anything that will work. I really don’t know. But I do like the idea of researching the possibility. The scientific method is a strong tool for examining unknowns. It is important for there be experimentation, so that objections can be proven or disproven.
What are you hoping to accomplish with the money you raise on Experiment?
I’m working on a special topic issue. The journal itself, The Open Renewable Energy Journal is open-access, as its name implies, and has been around for a few years. I’ve been able to have all the publication fees that the journal normally charges waived for the special topic issue. The money raised here will support the work on my end, basically editorial work, and then also be used to generate press after the article comes out. If there is interest, I’d like to help set up a professional organization related to the practical applications of lightning, and that should include a journal and conferences. That’s a ways off.
Why is this project important?
The planetary electrical system includes the electrical charge associated with thunderstorms, and lightning discharge is a part of that. If this energy can be harnessed, it will provide another alternative source of electrical power or power for materials’ processing. The need is obvious. Anything that might be an alternative to fossil fuels might provide more time before the polar ice melts. After that happens, it’s anyone’s guess what the climate will do.
Weather circulation systems on the planet are made up of three cells in the northern and southern hemispheres, one at the equator, the Hadley cell, one at the mid-latitudes, the Ferrel cell, and one at the poles. The Hadley and polar weather cells are stable, and the Ferrel cell isn’t. It reacts to what the other two do. But if the ice melts completely from the poles, then the polar cell probably won’t have the same stability that it does now. If the polar weather cells are disrupted, then global weather will be disrupted, and that will disrupt agriculture. And if agriculture is disrupted, then there’s not much hope for living in cities. It means the possible end of civilization. That’s the worst case scenario, and it may happen if the polar ice melts away completely. Agriculture depends on the weather.
To jump back, alternative energy, such as what may be feasible from lightning, can offset energy from fossil fuels. If fossil fuel combustion is replaced by renewable energy, climate instability should be less likely. Let me be clear, though, that this project is simply to publish the latest research on the area. The way that technology works is that a business decides that they can make a profit with a technology, and then they spend money to develop a product. The primary research comes first.
But it’s a real possibility. I’ve been successful in introducing a few research groups to each other, and that may bear fruit in the future. It’s been really fun to be in the position of scientific matchmaker, as it were. A lot depends on the research itself, if people are successful in their work.
Why did you choose crowdfunding for this project?
I like how the future is shaping up. There have never been more possibilities for independent science work. I’m an independent scientist. The institute I belong to is a virtual institute, designed for independent scientists. I think it’s a perfect fit. Crowdfunding works well in this setting, especially with more modest funding goals or with projects that might not be popular yet in the mainstream scientific community. But, really, I like the traditional grant structure as well. I think there’s room for both.
Is this a project Nikola Tesla would be proud of?
It’s hard to know. The most creative scientists can sometimes have hunches they are following up, and their interests may lie in one area and not another. Tesla experimented in atmospheric electricity, and also in artificial rainfall with electricity. I don’t think either of those projects were as successful as some of his other inventions, such as the electric motor, three-phase transmission of electricity, and, oh, just so many things. I imagine if he were alive today, I would have contacted him already to see if he had an article to submit to the special topic issue.
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