
It may be possible to extract electricity directly from damp air - jkuria
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/08/01/how-to-wring-power-from-the-night-air
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ComputerGuru
One can dream of extracting sufficient electricity to someday run a
dependency-free dehumidifier, which can put a damper on the need to run HVAC
in much of the world (damp air feels significantly warmer). One can dream.

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londons_explore
Isn't the electricity 'generated' coming from energy in the motion of the air.

Ie. You could maver make more electricity than used by the fan to blow damp
air through your system.

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Khoth
The description in the article is vague and I can't find any information
elsewhere, but the reference to the functionality depending on which metal is
used for the inner cylinder makes me think that it's actually a voltaic cell
using the moist air as a (poor) electrolyte.

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carapace
Check out the vaneless ion wind generator:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaneless_ion_wind_generator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaneless_ion_wind_generator)

Other weird stuff:
[http://www.rexresearch.com/1index.htm](http://www.rexresearch.com/1index.htm)

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fractallyte
Back in 1974, the 'Amateur Scientist' column in Scientific American covered
electrostatic motors: [http://www.meridian-int-
res.com/Energy/ESMotors.pdf](http://www.meridian-int-
res.com/Energy/ESMotors.pdf)

There's a lot of electrical energy swirling around in the ionosphere!

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mhalle
I remember two Popular Science articles on electrostatic motors from old
magazines of my youth. Always wanted to build one:

[https://books.google.com/books?id=ngAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=P...](https://books.google.com/books?id=ngAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95)

[https://books.google.com/books?id=kwAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=P...](https://books.google.com/books?id=kwAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80)

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yummypaint
Imagine it were possible to scale this up and somehow harness the full
lightning energy of a thunderstorm. Say 1 strike per second with each bolt
representing 10^9 joules. Then that is a measly 1 GW peak, only available in
certain places at specific times of day and parts of the year, not including
losses and inefficiencies .

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octosphere
> harness the full lightning energy of a thunderstorm

As in, walk into every chapel and install a device that works with the
apparatus for 'catching' strikes? Not sure what they're called, but I know
it's tradition of having a chapel higher than all other buildings which is
used to capture potential strikes and earth the current through the ground.

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Retra
That's called a lightning rod.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/JrlQ2](http://archive.is/JrlQ2)

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mettamage
The title sounds like magic. That's what I like about this world. We do not
have the great wall or dragons, but we are doing things that sound just as
magical to them as great walls and dragons sound to us.

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mirimir
I hate stories about science written by non-scientists.

See
[http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_09.html](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_09.html)

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dang
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
mirimir
Just to be clear, I was referring to the article, and not to the research it
reported on.

But yes, point taken. I should have explained my criticisms of that particular
article, rather than being generally dismissive of science reporting by non-
scientists.

I could have said that I found the article to be confusing and misleading.
About our understanding of the atmosphere's electrical potential, and about
the particular research reported. But I just made a snide comment, and pointed
to the Feynman lecture.

