# Harnessing lightening?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harnessing-lightening/271572>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 27, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harnessing-lightening/271572 "2004-10-27T23:49:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harnessing-lightening/271572/1 "2004-10-27T23:49:35Z")

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Its late here and I’m slightly inebriated so I’ll keep this brief. Would it be possible in any way to harness the electrical power of lightening for any possible uses at all? I’ve not really read up on this so forgive me if this is just too silly :smack:

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harnessing-lightening/271572/2 "2004-10-28T00:06:59Z")

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A quick **Google** revealed one source that said it would be possible to use the energy, but getting the lightning to strike might take some time.

Another [**source**](http://wvlightning.com/lmwn7.html) seems to disagree:

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*  
> MYTH: Lightning could be used as a power source.  
> TRUTH: Although a lightning strike involves tremendous levels of voltage and current, the extremely short duration of the stroke results in very little usable energy, if there was a way to capture it. And by its very nature, lightning is a sudden, violent release of energy that would destroy any device designed to attempt it.\*\*

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harnessing-lightening/271572/3 "2004-10-28T00:11:17Z")

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Sounds like you might want to harness the power of White Lightening first. 🙂