Everyone must have seen lightning right? Some of you stay normal when the lightning strikes, however some may get frightened, a lot! But some of you must be curious after witnessing a lightning strike, how much electricity or power it generates when it strikes on the earth ‘s surface? Here we got you the answer, read to know.
First of all let us tell you how lightning actually occurs. So lightning is basically a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, air, or ground. In other words, Lightning is a quick electrostatic discharge that occurs during a thunderstorm.
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Now, back to our main question: how much volts or power lightning can produce after it strikes the earth surface. A typical lightning flash produces about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps. In comparison to the household current which is only 120 Volts and 15 Amps, power produced by lightning is way too large.
With an average flash of lightning striking from cloud to ground containing roughly around 1 billion joules of energy. Furthermore, each year, over one and a half billion lightning bolts are released into the atmosphere, so you can imagine how much power lightning as a source produces with just one single bolt.
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But sadly, to consume or store the lightning energy, the cost goes sky-high. For now we can only hope science develops a cheaper or affordable technology to store lightning power…
