A New Source Of Renewable Energy From Lightning Return Stroke: A Small Scale System

Mohd Farriz, Md Basar and Khalil Azha, Mohd Annuar and Madiha, Zahari and Muhamad Faizal, Yaakub and Mohd Firdaus, Mohd Ab Halim (2011) A New Source Of Renewable Energy From Lightning Return Stroke: A Small Scale System. Project Report. UTeM. (Submitted)

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Abstract

A new source of renewable energy from lightning return stroke is a possible contributor to solve the energy crisis. The main problem in harvesting the lightning energy is to capture and store the energy within a very short time. Hence, computer simulation using PSpice is done as the preliminary effort intended for the laboratory set up as well as to understand and verify the operational system principle. A small-scale laboratory is set up based on natural characteristics of lightning to determine the performance and capability of the sample capacitor accurately, since a capacitor nowadays becomes the most widespread, economical and reliable energy storage device. Besides that, the direct tapping system and the high speed switching is desired in order to make the whole system more realistic. In this work, the result of the laboratory experiment that has been carried out on energy storage capacitors is presented. The capacitors are subjected to 1.2/50us, 4.2kV single-stroke impulse voltages generated by a single stage impulse generator. The results show that the impulse voltage can be successfully transferred and stored the energy in the storage capacitors. The efficiency of the energy transfer depends on the capacitance types and values and the switching times. The small scale system successfully illustrates the concept of capturing energy from lightning return strokes which can be a potential source of renewable energy.

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