Can electricity be drawn from thin air?  The idea has been around for more than a century as observers have noted lightning and its formation around clouds.  Nikola Tesla dreamed of harnessing this energy so that mankind could freely use electricity without regard to their mundane sources of energy and capital.

Tesla, of course, never really succeeded, but scientists presenting to the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society think that they might be on track to do what he couldn’t.  Study leader Fernando Galembeck, PhD, says that his group may not only unlock the mystery of where natural electricity comes from, but how to harness it and even prevent it from causing damage.

“Just as solar energy could free some households from paying electric bills, this promising new energy source could have a similar effect.”

Galembeck is leading a team of researchers into this potential energy source at the University of Campinas in Brazil.  Their research is based on new evidence that water particles in the air, once thought electrically-neutral, are actually often charged positively or negatively and it may be the interaction of these pre-charged particles that causes lightning and other natural electrical discharges.

Building small-scale water and dust experiments in the lab, and U of Campinas team has reproduced some natural lightning-like effects and has been able to do so consistently enough to believe they’re on to something big.

Galembeck envisions a future where solar panel-like devices gather naturally-occurring electricity, even that which happens on such a tiny scale that we don’t even notice it, and using that power to energize homes, electric vehicles, and more.

This alternative energy source could be the power that drives alternative cars, heating and air conditioning, and the appliances and gadgets that make up modern life into the future.  Galembeck is calling this energy “hygroelectricity.”

See the American Chemical Society for more information.

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