Would this work, Michel? :-) Fred
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodynamic_tether > [Original Message] > From: Michel Jullian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > Date: 12/23/2006 4:07:28 AM > Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Going Van de Graaff > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Robin van Spaandonk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 3:05 AM > Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Going Van de Graaff > > > > In reply to Michel Jullian's message of Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:05:29 +0100: > > Hi, > > [snip] > >>It's OK Robin, it happens to me all the time :) > >>Your other point is valid though, we don't know how long it takes the Sun to charge this capacitor. But it's unlikely it charges it in one two millionth of a day = 43 ms, which would be required for it to provide the world's daily energy consumption :/ > >> > >>Michel > > If the fair weather current is 1E-12 amps per square meter, then the total > > current for the entire planet is 510 A. Multiplying this by 300000 V gives a > > power of 153 MW - not much to run our civilization on. > > BTW the fair weather current would charge the Earth capacitor in 55.7 seconds. > > Discharge you mean, but this certainly means the sun provides an equal charging current to compensate for the leak. > > > > > BTW2 if we were to drain this power for other uses, it would not be available > > for lightning, which is intimately involved with rainfall. The consequences for > > global rainfall could be catastrophic. > > ...or beneficial maybe, if suppression of lightning had the effect of favoring gentle rainfall and suppressing brutal flood-inducing rainstorms, not to mention the damages caused by lightning itself. In which case one would have to find a way to drain the capacitor, either permanently or on demand, which doesn't seem obvious. Tethered balloon-borne "lightning rods" maybe? (wouldn't require wind unlike Benjamin Franklin's kite) > > Michel > > > > > Regards, > > > > Robin van Spaandonk > > > > http://users.bigpond.net.au/rvanspaa/ > > > > Competition provides the motivation, > > Cooperation provides the means. > >
