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On 05/01/2012 02:43 PM, Donald Polvani wrote:
[How feasible] ...to involve a collecting balloon
at cloud levels connected by a conducting cable to a "power converter" (also
up in the atmosphere), then by conducting cable to a ground "isolation
platform" and then connected to a power generator.
Four contributors to the charge balance between atmosphere and Earth are given as
1) Fair weather Air-Earth current. 3E-12 A/m^2 integrated to 1530A for Earth's entire surface.
2 )Precipitation current 1E-12 A/m^2
3) Lightning current 1.3E-12A/m^2 when integrated over the Earth's surface.
4) Thunderstorm Air-Earth current 3E-12 A/m^2
[from Israel, Dolezalek; Atmospharische Elektrizitat Vol 2 (1961) pp368- ]
Speculating on the enhanced gradient which might possibly be available, I can
suppose that a breakdown potential of 1kV per mm air and a cloud height of 300 meters
leads to a high-end estimate of the voltage available of 300 MV
Speculating further, on the effective area for charge collection with such a scheme as a 1 km square
leads to a continuous power estimate not greater than 3E-12A/m^2 X 1E6 m^2/km^2 X 3E8 V X 1 km^2
which resolves to 900 watts continuous.