tapping microwave from the northern and southern lights

[chicopee]

Can microwave energy be tapped from the aurora borialis and australis to lessen the dependence on oil?

 

[zeusfaber]

Checks date. No, another thirteen days to go.

Don't believe it's available at sufficient power flux density to make a practical and meaningful dent in the dependence on oil. If I'm reading this correctly, there's unlikely to be more than 50 GW available across a whole hemisphere (if a "whole hemisphere" may be considered a thing).

A

 

[FacEngrPE]

Doubtful

https://www.quora.com/How-much-energy-can-be-harvested-from-the-Aurora-Borealis?share=1[/URL]]None, or so little as to be irrelevant. The Aurora are charged particles moving in the magnetic field over an area of hundreds of miles. To get any energy out you’d need to build some massive device, capable of generating a field of similar magnitude, to capture enough of those particles to then do anything with. It would almost certainly take ore energy than you could then extract from those particles.

Even geomagnetic energy which could be captured in small amounts is too infrequently available to be worth intentionally capturing.