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How much free energy is there in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide resulting from the constant bombardment of lightning strikes all over the Earth, and how do you go about calculating an estimate for it?

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Vote to close, to discourage those "free energy" fools asap. – Georg Feb 24 '11 at 9:42
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Problem, officer? – Janne808 Feb 24 '11 at 10:41
F*E* is a very bad keyword, so I wiped it from the question. Now I think it is ok. – mbq♦ Feb 24 '11 at 15:03
I don't think so. Go start your own question Gestapo. – Janne808 Feb 24 '11 at 15:21
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There's no indication that the phrase "free energy" is being used here in its problematic perpetual-motion-machine sense, but the phrase is confusing and misleading in this context. Are you really talking about free energy in the thermodynamic sense (e.g., Helmholtz or Gibbs free energy)? If so, I don't see why: it seems to me that what you mean is quite simply "energy," not free energy. Your question will be much clearer, and you're much more likely to get good responses, if you phrase it that way. – Ted Bunn Feb 24 '11 at 15:50
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1 Answer

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Harvesting_lightning_energy

As a rough estimation, you can take energy of 1 lightening 5 MJ. Multiply that by number of strikes per day/year and you are done.

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But the question is how much of that ends up in the waveguide as ELF radiation? – Janne808 Feb 24 '11 at 15:26

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