# harness the power of lightning

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 10, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318 "2001-06-10T16:27:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![funguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@funguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funguy)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318/1 "2001-06-10T16:27:25Z")

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i want to harness the energy from lightning strikes i have heard a bolt of lightning is six times hotter than the surface of the sun so what do you think?

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318/2 "2001-06-10T16:37:27Z")

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I think people who double post should be struck by lightning… twice.

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318/3 "2001-06-10T16:55:20Z")

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So, because you don’t get the kind of answer you **want** , you start a new thread?  
You think the laws of physics & engineering limitations change because of your whims?  
The universe doesn’t work that way.  
Your notion of tapping lightning as a commercially viable source of power isn’t practical. Move on.

Solar, wind power, hydroelectric, tidal or fusion power may solve the problem of plentiful & cheap electricity. But lightning won’t.

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2001, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harness-the-power-of-lightning/68318/4 "2001-06-10T17:03:34Z")

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Don’t confuse temperature with heat, and voltage with power. I don’t think a single lightning bolt has that much usable power in it. While a lightning bolt can carry extremely high currents and voltages (millions of volts, at tens of thousands of amperes), the duration is very short. So while a single lightning bolt may be millions of watts, in terms of watt/hours it’s not very much energy, at by the standards of other types of power production.