# How about harvesting the whole potential energy of the atmosphere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956 "2019-06-03T15:18:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/1 "2019-06-03T15:18:04Z")
Lightning is bad, potential of electrons is good no matter of the voltage There have been experiments to harvest the energy of lightning, but they were doomed… If we tried to get **all** the energy of the atmosphere, would it be too great of an effort? I never read this, but I think it is about what I just asked… [http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II\_09.html](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_09.html) Will we get too much energy? We could use some of it to cool the climate down. I would place a billion of electrically heated balloons to the altitude of several thousands of miles and raise the potential of the electricity to millions of volts (so that it could be wired very thin)… But there is a bunch of experts among you. Give me some data to work with this more. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/2 "2019-06-03T15:24:08Z")
That lecture you linked to but didn’t read seems to be over 60 years old. ---
**Author:** ![HeiLo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c77e96/32.png) [@HeiLo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeiLo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/3 "2019-06-03T22:16:46Z")
Ah, my favorite! A catastrophically bad idea that fortunately is far too impractical to actually attempt. There should be an xkcd What If… Anyway: Yes, it would be too much effort. And frankly, “a billion heated balloons a thousand miles up" kind of gives it away. The atmosphere isn’t even that thick. The heating would require fantastic amounts of energy anyway. Had you actually read that link - which I strongly encourage you to - you would know that the entire atmosphere generates about 700 MW. That’s like one nuclear power plant. At the same time, discharging the atmosphere could affect cloud formation and rain fall. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/4 "2019-06-04T20:52:22Z")
> [@komolono](#): > > Lightning is bad, potential of electrons is good no matter of the voltage There have been experiments to harvest the energy of lightning, but they were doomed… > If we tried to get **all** the energy of the atmosphere, would it be too great of an effort? > I never read this, but I think it is about what I just asked… > [The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. II Ch. 9: Electricity in the Atmosphere](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_09.html) > Will we get too much energy? We could use some of it to cool the climate down. > I would place a billion of electrically heated balloons to the altitude of several thousands of miles and raise the potential of the electricity to millions of volts (so that it could be wired very thin)… > But there is a bunch of experts among you. Give me some data to work with this more. Skip the balloons and add [a tether](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipopRUNoL3U) to the space elevator. Run a wire down the elevator to access the energy. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/5 "2019-06-04T20:57:28Z")
Not that I wouldn’t mind reading through the whole lecture, but would anyone like to reduce it down to the precise apparatus that the OP is suggesting be built? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/6 "2019-06-04T21:51:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > That lecture you linked to but didn’t read seems to be over 60 years old. Do you think the science of electrodynamics has changed significantly in that time? The answer, from the lecture, is that even if you captured **all** of the power from the atmospheric voltage gradient, it would only amount to 700 megawatts. That’s the scale of a modest power station. It’s an incredibly small amount in comparison to the effort required to capture it. In comparison, generating the same power via solar panels requires only 1/100,000,000 the surface area of Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/7 "2019-06-05T14:33:29Z")
LOL - definitely undermines John Galt’s motor in Atlas Shrugged. However, parachute spiders are making practical use of the electrostatic field: > **[Spiders use electricity to fly thousands of miles, research shows](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/06/electricity-accounts-spiders-ability-fly-research-shows/762568002/)** > > New research shows that electric fields trigger spiders to "balloon," a process where they throw out a silk parachute and fly for thousands of miles. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/8 "2019-06-05T15:29:56Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Do you think the science of electrodynamics has changed significantly in that time? I wouldn’t know if it is normal for electrodynamics to not change in over 60 years-I’m not a electrodynamicator. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/9 "2019-06-05T15:45:35Z")
It’s what Ben Franklin demonstrated with his kite. Hasn’t changed much since then. ---
**Author:** ![HeiLo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c77e96/32.png) [@HeiLo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeiLo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-about-harvesting-the-whole-potential-energy-of-the-atmosphere/834956/10 "2019-06-05T17:37:48Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Not that I wouldn’t mind reading through the whole lecture, but would anyone like to reduce it down to the precise apparatus that the OP is suggesting be built? To spell it out - as far as I can tell, the idea is to send a balloon up with a long wire down to earth. Due to the huge voltage between up and down, electrons would travel along the wire - an electric current that could do useful work. However, once enough electrons have gone up, the current stops because the balloon is now at the same potential as the earth. Now you will have to wait for positive charges in the air to discharge your balloon - which might take a while. Regarding Franklin, he used the opposite mechanism that recharges earth with electrons. That happens quite fast, but is equally useless as a power source.