Material Empire

Lightning collection?

As soon as the word came out of Tranquility's mouth, Flanding was immediately taken aback. What kind of black technology is this, there is such a technology on the earth?

"Prince Flanding, I heard that Gezar has been suffering from thunderstorms in recent years. Is there such a thing?"

Kaan spoke from the side, and lightning collection is Kaan's lifelong pursuit. This time he came to Saudi Arabia to promote lightning collection technology, which was also proposed by Kaan. For this matter, he specifically consulted Saudi Arabia's meteorological data in recent years, so what he said was not without purpose.

"That's true." Flanding frowned and said, "Ghazal is a desert. In the past, there were occasional thunderstorms, but there were seven or eight times a year, and each lasted no more than ten minutes. The longest It’s considered powerful if it lasts half an hour. The past few years have been abnormal, and the frequency of thunderstorms has been increasing. Last year, there were almost thirty or forty times, and they often lasted for nearly an hour.”

"It's not surprising." Ka'an said, "The occurrence of thunderstorms is related to geological conditions. The desalination of seawater in Ghazal City is used for irrigation, which increases the moisture content of the soil and increases the electrical conductivity of the ground. Therefore, the number of thunderstorms It will increase. If Gezar continues to expand the area of ​​the oasis in the future, the thunderstorm climate will continue to intensify."

"I see." Flanding nodded. He also went to college and knew a little physics. It was just that no one reminded him of this problem in the past. Now, after hearing what Ka'an said, he also understood that the increase in local thunderstorms in recent years is not accidental, but because water diversion irrigation has changed the soil temperature.

The formation of lightning is nothing more than a large amount of charge accumulated in the air, and when it encounters a charge of the opposite sex, a violent discharge occurs. The sand on the desert is extremely dry and cannot conduct electricity, so it is difficult to release the air charge above the desert. There is a large oasis in Ghazal, and the surface humidity is high, forming a good electrical conductivity, so all the charges are discharged to this place.

Frequent thunderstorms have brought a lot of trouble to residents and businesses in Gezar City. Ghazal is an oil city. There are many oil extraction machines in the field, as well as large oil storage tanks. Once these devices are struck by lightning, the consequences will be very dire. At present, Gaizal's approach is to install a large number of lightning rods near high-rise buildings and large equipment to guide lightning to the ground, so there have been no serious accidents in the past few years.

Ka'an introduced the cause of the thunderstorm, and then said: "Actually, lightning is not harmful or beneficial. Lightning itself is a kind of energy. If the energy accumulated in lightning can be collected, it can completely replace the current power supply. The effect of energy saving. Lightning collection can also effectively reduce the intensity of thunderstorms and avoid catastrophic weather. In this regard, I, and of course Miss Tranquility, have done years of research and proposed a mature solution for lightning collection , can be chosen by Prince Flanding."

These words were actually Ka'an's bragging. He had indeed designed a lightning collection system with Tranquility, and conducted experiments on a barren hill near the Anhe Institute of Materials, but it was far from being mature enough.

The principle of lightning collection is not complicated. It is to use a metal wire similar to a lightning rod to lead the charge in midair to the ground, and then store it in a power storage device. To realize lightning collection, two important conditions are required. One is that the resistance of the wire must be very small, so as not to heat up and burn under the action of high current. Absorb massive amounts of electrical energy over time.

Ka'an was troubled by these two conditions back then, but failed to break through the technical barrier of lightning collection. After being incorporated into the School of Materials by Qin Hai, these two difficulties have been resolved one after another. The former relies on the high-temperature superconducting technology developed by Ning Jing, while the latter relies on the supercapacitor developed by Ka'an himself.

The technical problem is solved, and the next step is the economic problem. Raiden collection sounds beautiful, but it is not so interesting to put it into practice. According to theoretical calculations, the electricity generated by a large-scale thunderstorm is enough for a small city to use for several days, but this kind of large-scale thunderstorm itself does not happen often, and it is impossible to collect all the electricity theoretically. Compared with thermal power, hydropower, wind power and other energy sources, the cost performance of lightning collection is too low, and it lacks the value of application.

Of course, what is said here is only limited to the current situation. If the relevant technology can be further improved, the construction cost of the collection system can be greatly reduced, and the lightning collection method still has application prospects. Some foreign institutions have done similar research, and have also built a smart building that mainly uses lightning for power supply. Of course, this is a later story.

Unable to find application opportunities in China, Ka'an turned his attention to the oil tyrants in the Middle East. By chance, he learned that thunderstorms occurred frequently in Gaizal City, which is closely related to the Daqin Group. After studying the relevant information, he knew that this was the result of microclimate changes in the Gaizal area, so he came here. The idea of ​​selling the system. As a scientist, it is the most frustrating thing that the results of his countless painstaking efforts are not applied, but whenever possible, he will try his best to promote its realization.

Flanding has a lot of money, but he is not stupid. He asked Kaan a few questions, and then he understood what was going on. Thunderbolt collection is indeed a very high-end thing, but it cannot stand the high cost. Whether it is high-temperature superconducting materials or supercapacitors, they are all expensive things. After the construction of this system, if you only rely on collecting lightning to make money, you may not be able to recover the cost in 50 years, let alone updates in the middle. , Maintenance expenses.

To put it bluntly, Kaan used his own city as an experimental field, and even had to pay for the experimental funds himself. How could Flanding agree to such a thing.

"Mr. Ka'an, Mrs. Qin, the technology you introduced is indeed very good, and I am very interested. However, you also know that Gaizal is an oil city, and the energy problem is not a big problem for us, so ..." Flanding smiled, ready to politely reject Ka'an and Tranquility's request.

"Prince Flanding." Drake winked at Flanding, "There is a situation that I want to report to you."

"Oh?" Flanding stopped talking. He nodded to Qin Hai and the others, then followed Drake a few steps to the side, and asked in a low voice, "Drake, what's the problem?"

Drake also lowered his voice and said, "Prince Flanding, I think we can consider accepting the Chinese proposal."

"You mean, about the lightning collection?" Flanding asked.

"Yes." Drake said.

Flanding said: "This system is of no value to us. Our power generation cost is very low, and there is no need to consider replacing it with lightning. What's more, their system is not mature, and the collected lightning is also It cannot meet the electricity needs of the whole city, which is completely redundant.”

Drake shook his head and said: "From an economic point of view, it is true. But from other aspects, this system is of great benefit to Gezar City."

"Why?" Flanding was a little puzzled.

Drake said: "Think about it, does Ghazal have any special status in Saudi Arabia? It is just an ordinary oil city. Even if we create an oasis of 15 square kilometers in the desert, it is not enough It has attracted everyone's attention. Then to the entire Middle East, and even the entire world, who knows the city of Gezaar?

If we can build the world's first lightning collection system and use lightning to meet the electricity demand of the whole city for half a year, no, only for a quarter, then we have created a miracle, which is enough to make Gaizal the city's electricity demand. It is a well-known new energy demonstration city, and Your Highness, you are the creator of this miracle. "

"That's a good idea." Flanding's eyes lit up, and Drake's words really touched his heart.

Everyone may have the desire to achieve fame. Some people are from poor families and their own abilities are not enough. Naturally, this kind of desire can only be let go. But Flanding was different. He was born with a golden key in his mouth, so he naturally possessed the ability to become famous all over the world. Over the years, Flanding has carried out business operations based on oil, accumulated a lot of wealth, and has a place on the list of the world's richest people, but in the eyes of others, he is just a land rich man, and he doesn't get much at all. Sincere respect.

Desalination of seawater and development of oasis in Gaizal is a means for Flanding to prove his ability. However, as Drake said, these achievements did not attract much attention, and when others talked about them, they only simply complimented them, which did not reach the level of surprise.

The matter of collecting lightning is quite different. If this system can be applied in Gezar City and achieve actual results, then Flanding will be the first person who can use lightning. Think about it, the world's power generation technologies are nothing more than thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, solar power, plus geothermal energy, tidal energy and other off-the-wall technologies, and there are no more than 10 types. If Flanding could add one more to this list, wouldn't he be famous in history?

Thinking of this, Flanding only felt hot all over. The investment of hundreds of millions of dollars was nothing. He was working hard to make money, wasn't it for this purpose?

He turned around, strode up to Qin Hai and the others, and said, "Mr. Qin, Mrs. Qin, and Mr. Ka'an, I've already made up my mind. I'm going to cooperate with you to jointly develop lightning collection technology and use cover The city of Zaar serves as a place for technology verification."

"Very well, Prince Flanding!"

Without waiting for Qin Hai to say anything, Ka'an said first, "I believe that you will definitely be famous in the history of science in the world because of this achievement."