Is it possible to harvest electricity from thin air?

Have you ever wondered if producing electricity could be as simple as breathing air? Living in the Midwest, it’s not uncommon to see lightening dash across the sky during a thunderstorm or witness an event called thunder-snow during the winter.

What if we could harness this energy? I have often wondered this. I witnessed a close lightening strike once and experienced the “green ball” which burst in our home. I know what it’s like to have all of my hair become instantly static when a lightening storm is near. But still, I am curious about harvesting and using this energy.

We know from using batteries that energy has to utilize positive and negative poles. We have acknowledged that the sun can produce usable energy by utilizing solar panels, and that wind and water create electricity using turbines. Further recent developments include the use of Geo-Thermo Energy to heat our homes as seen on display at the 2010 Farm Progress Show held near Des Moines, Iowa.

Scientists recently unveiled the discovery of the mechanism by which water vapor in the air becomes charged at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in August 2010. (Dillow 2010) But what if we could pull energy from thin air day or night?

Nikola Tesla was working on this exact technology in 1899. Tesla theorized that ionic particles traveled between the earth and the sun. But, when investors killed his funding to build the Wardenclyffe Tower Transmitter Station in Long Island because the fear of free electricity was too great, Tesla was forced to stop his research. The tower was demolished in 1917. (Hunter 2008)

Technology has come a long way since, allowing us to accomplish more. What wasn’t available or even thought of then is now a reality. Is it possible, at last, to harvest electricity from thin air? If you knew how, would you go green?

References

Clay Dillow, August 26, 2010 , “Electricity out of thin air could be the next big power source”, article, POPSCI.com

Keith Hunter, 2008, “Tesla Undone: The Collapse of the Wardenclyffe Tower Project”, Nikola Tesla Biography, article, ancient-world-mysteries.com