Hydrogen power is an exciting alternative energy source because it burns clean and emits only water vapor and heat -- however the tech is crippled by the fact that it takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen fuel. This eye-popping Hydra Tower aims to solve the hydrogen conundrum in the most logical awesome way possible -- by harnessing bolts of lighting to smash molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The spire's sinuous exoskeleton is made from graphene, a carbon super-material that is 200 times stronger than steel and highly conductive to heat and electricity - the better to channel incredible amounts of energy straight from the sky.
Mwuhahahahahaha! They will never laugh me again with my new creation. Igor, raise the platform! Arise, my creation, arise!
While it´s true a ligtning bolt has a lot of energy, most of it is immediately lost to the surrounding air as heat and thus not available electrically. And has anyone thought about ground to cloud lightning?
Can’t imagine how can they do maintenance…. or even build it without someone struck by a lightning bolt or two…
A_H: Graphene is highly conductive– nearly perfectly so. Electricity travels along the path of least resistance, and your body is highly resistant. Even if you stood at the base of the tower and bridged the gap between building and ground (worst case scenario), the amount of current that would pass through your body would be negligible.
The only problem with this design is that current tech only produces graphene in sheets a few millimeters in size. Creating solid structures is certainly several decades away.
Another challenge: finding places that are struck by lightning enough to make this worth building.