You have to remember that power is energy per unit time.  A watt is a joulle
per second.  Even though a lightning strike may be gigawatts of power, it
lasts a small fraction of a second.  Millions of joulles of energy.  One
kilowatt-hour (perhaps 10 cents worth of electricity) is 3.6 million joulles
of energy.  So I'm going to state that $100 worth of energy can do thousands
of dollars of damage at times.  It's all in how concentrated the energy is
in space and time.

An article I read recently in Science News stated that some experimenters
believed that ball lightning was a concentrated plasma of mostly metal ions.
Someone was able to create something that acted like it in the lab.

Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Mark
> Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 5:30 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: How much power in a lightning strike? RE: Lightning Arresters
> 
> Hi
>      My suspicion is that if a person could store the energy from =
> lightening strikes, one could use them for a renewable power source. Is =
> there any information on such a project?
> 
> God bless,
> Mark
> -- Currently in Pendleton, Eastern Oregon Regional At Pendleton, Oregon =
> Overcast, 63.0=B0F Wind:W-260=B0 a=20
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 11:37 AM
> Subject: Re: How much power in a lightning strike? RE: Lightning =
> Arresters
> 
> 
> I did a research paper in high school on lightning and I have watched=20
> several lightning specials on satellite channels over the years, plus, =
> as=20
> mentioned earlier, I was three feet from a lightning flash over, for =
> what=20
> that is worth, but according to one of the articles I read for my =
> research=20
> paper, lightning bolts can have up to 1 billion volts and 500 amps of =
> power.=20
> This generally , according to what I have read, is the extreme high end =
> of=20
> the rating but you can be 20 miles distant from a storm and still be =
> struck=20
> by a lightning bolt.  I've also been about 75 feet from a telephone pole =
> 
> that was hit by lightning.  One of the problems of being struck seems to =
> be=20
> if you are carrying an Ipod, a cellphone, or any electronic device based =
> 
> upon the bulk of the research to date.  I carry my cell phone with a =
> clip on=20
> the back of it and clip it to my shirt pocket, instead of a belt clip,=20
> because that way I don't keep brushing the phone off my belt when =
> passing=20
> too closely to a table or chair.  So, in short, if I'm hit, maybe my =
> heart=20
> will be the focus of the strike.  Ball lightning I have confirmed by two =
> 
> different people.  One was a Nebraska farmer who saw lightning strike a=20
> tree, roll down to the ground in a ball, and literally roll along the =
> ground=20
> until it hit a fence post or something sticking up in its way and then=20
> exploded as it that was where it hit in the first place.  Another farmer =
> 
> friend watched from the house as lightning, in New York, struck the =
> ground,=20
> bounced 4 and 5 times into the air, and then finally exploded.  That's =
> some=20
> pretty weird plasma that I don't want to be around when it hits.
> 
> Phil.
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> Subject: Re: How much power in a lightning strike? RE: Lightning =
> Arresters