NSW Scientists have made a major breakthrough, harnessing electricity from lightning strikes in sufficient quantities to be stored and used for commercial consumption.
A spokesperson for Lightning Power, the fledgling NSW company behind the venture stated that if there were enough lightning strikes across the State, in the right places, at the right time, the millions of volts of electricity expelled by a lightning strike, once captured and stored, would be sufficient to replace existing coal fired power stations by 2030.
Harnessing power from lightning is not new, it’s been used for small scale applications in the past, including powering the Delorean back to the future. The biggest challenge is ensuring a constant supply of lightning, calculating the strike pattern and capturing the lightning to unleash millions of volts to keep NSW lights going.
While the technology is still in development, Lighting Australia, the peak body representing the lightning power generation industry insists lightning power extraction, while not without its risks, is an exciting development in the path towards a greener future.
A representative from NSW Climate and Energy was unavailable
