A Practical Approach To Electric Energy Through Lightning Capture and Storage (continued)
Catching "Lightning in a Bottle".
The discovery of superconductors... and the present research into practical usages of these newly-discovered materials... may hold the answers to a way to capture and store the electrical energy from lightning. Presently, the focus on superconductor research has been on the race to reduce the required temperatures necessary for materials to exhibit the properties of superconduction... as most of the scientific world are spending vast amounts of resources trying to search for practical uses for materials which exhibit superconducting properties at close to earth-based "normal" atmospheric temperatures. Research includes attempting to discover less expensive materials that do not require super-cooling to provide frictionless electron movement... research into materials that can be shaped into round wires for electrical distribution systems... and research into superconductive components like switches and superconductive field-effect transistors ( To view an article on a superconductor field-effect transistor now in development, see:
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_d ... p?prID=822 ). In addition to what is now known about superconducting materials... plasma laser researchers have also recently discovered that they may be able to induce and target lightning strikes by creating plasma filaments within atmospheric cloud formations found in naturally-occuring storms.
What present researchers do not see... is that they have already discovered the required materials and technologies necessary to harness electrical energy from lightning... we can... using present technologies and materials... "capture lightning in a bottle". Here's how a practical lightning capture and storage system might be achieved:
A coil of superconductive material would comprise the "storage system"... the superconductive coil must maintain its superconductive state for a period of time necessary to draw off the stored electrical energy... this could be accomplished through the use of a sustainable "super-cooling" system of liquid nitrogen or liquid helium (or a combination of both) so that the captured electrical energy from a single lightning strike would maintain its friction-free movement through the superconductive coil material until all of the stored energy could be drawn off. Therefore, the coil of superconductive material would need to be of a "closed-loop" design... with a "trigger mechanism" (discussed further in the following section) that will allow the superconductive coil to draw in the energy from the lightning strike and... once fully energized... the "trigger mechanism" would in effect "snap shut"... trapping the electrical energy from the lightning strike and confining it to the superconductive coil. In the same manner that the "trigger mechanism" would serve to allow the initial capture of the lightning strike(s)... these same "trigger mechanisms" would be intersperced in the superconductive storage coil to allow the stored energy to be drawn off... slowly... and through conventional means... such as power generators... capacitors...battery storage systems... or other energy-producing machines and motors.
The Importance of the Discovery of Superconducting Field-Effect Transistors.
Finding a superconductive "switch" or "gate" (see the article on the discovery of the superconductive field-effect transistor) has tremendous importance to the ability to capture and use the stored lightning energy. With a way to "tap off" massive amounts of electrical energy from a stored lightning strike... through the use of electrically controlled superconductive field-effect transistors... it is possible to gradually "step down" the massive amounts of energy stored in the superconductive coil and use it by conventional storage and distribution systems and applications. The initial use of a specialized superconductive field-effect transistor would be to allow lightning energy to flow into the superconductive coil... to "capture it"...and then through the use of the superconductive field-effect transistor... "close the lid on the bottle"... so that the lightning electrical energy would remain in the coil and not continue out of the coil and back into the atmosphere or into another conductor.
The second use of the superconductive field-effect transistor would be to use its "Y" characteristics to fractionally divide and then re-direct the stored energy from the lightening strike until ... through the process of being able to divide a massive voltage down to conventional-use scopes and sizes... we can utilize the stored energy using conventional distribution networks. Since what we are concerned with in this experiment is just ONE FOCUS... to tap a renewable energy source... once that energy has been safely captured and stored... our concerns with the gradual losses associated with that "free" electrical source should not be a major concern... so we should not be concerned that through the entire system described... we will eventually be losing all of the energy we have captured and stored... but rather that the enegry was produced almost without cost... and without consuming any non-renewable energy source to provide the power. Instead of focusing research upon the distribution system... the focus should be upon converting electrical energy from lightning into usable and compatable power which can then be disseminated through existing distribution systems to the end users.
From a bolt of lightning in the air... channeled to a superconductive storage coil by a plasma laser beam... tapped off through superconductive field-effect transistors... to electrical generators... capacitors and batteries... to our conventional electrical distribution system... and finally to our businesses and homes... this system would greatly reduce pollution... help to reverse global warming... end mankind's dependence upon fossil fuel... and allow the resources of the planet to be preserved. May we all live to see it!