[1] https://www.treehugger.com/how-much-energy-is-in-lightning-8...
In fact a quick back of the napkin math suggests it would only power a city of a million people for half a second.
Edit: I read past the line where they mentioned this was in the plans.
> we conducted artificial lightning tests on drones equipped with the lightning protection cage. The results showed that the system withstood artificial strikes of up to 150 kA—five times greater than the average natural lightning strike—without any malfunction or damage, covering over 98% of naturally occurring lightning conditions.
Aren't lightning conditions often preceded by strong winds and poor weather conditions? Not a great time to be flying drones. And the approach seems more complicated than simply installing lightning rods.
I'd sooner envision people using the technique to get a kick out of throwing lightning around like they're Zeus.
https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-power
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35493/are-carbo...
dolphin0•3h ago
ahahahahah•3h ago
"In addition, we aim to not only trigger and control lightning, but also to harness its energy. Future efforts will focus on developing technologies for capturing and storing lightning energy for potential use (Figure 7)."
dinkblam•2h ago
fudged71•1h ago