BUILDING LIGHTNING FARMS IN PARIS

[Werner Presber]

The New York Times just released its 7th annual Year in Ideas round- 
up, and there are some interesting inclusions.
Amidst short articles on airborne wind turbines, Islam in outer space,  
UPS's ban on left-hand turns – all of which have been explored on  
BLDGBLOG before – and even so-called "marijuana mansions," we're asked  
to consider "whether full-scale lightning farms might one day become a  
meaningful source of electricity."

Practically speaking, the NYTimes explains, building a lightning farm  
would entail the construction of an entire specialty landscape. You  
could probably even patent it.

There would be "a tower, an array of grounding wires to shunt off most  
of the incoming energy and a giant capacitor. Theoretically, if enough  
energy is delivered to the capacitor, it can be stored, converted to  
alternating current and transferred to the power grid."
Unfortunately, the article explains, lightning farms don't really work.

But no matter: BLDGBLOG would like to propose turning the entirety of  
Paris into a lightning farm. The Eiffel Tower would loom over a  
network of grounding wires. Groves of steel poles – orchards of power,  
virtually harnessing the sky – would stand amidst cobblestones,  
spiraling up hills, and the outermost streets of the city, connecting  
cafe to cafe down stairways, leading up to bars and scenic overlooks,  
glow every fortnight as that great central spike gets thrashed with  
aerial electricity. You can toast bread with all that power, draining  
the clouds, awaiting storms with videocameras in hand to film that  
apocalypse of alternating currents in the sky

Text via: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/building-lightning-farms-in-paris.html