uhhh how many times have I heard this one!!!
--if it's so great build one!! -it's not even that hard... dig a hole and bury an insulated aluminium water tank - fill it and wire it up, whalla capacitor with antenna - now make sure that when you finally do get a lighting strike (probablity approaching that maybe your grandgrandgrandgrandgrand child will observe the capacitor fill and finally get to use it) that your not in the vicinity of the tank!!
another intersting idea, which I do hold merit for is alternative wind generator....
instead of collecting wind energy via a turbine/prop, why not use the principals of static electricity.
build your roof out of styrofoam and wire it to some electronics which can concvert high voltage to a usable current - everytime wind blws 'fresh' atoms over your roof you will be charging the styrofoam.
--approximation of E available...
I can lift a 10mm 1/2 sheet (1.2x.12 m) of stryofoam with approx 1 hand to a height of 1m in 1sec before E is lost. now I dunno it porbably weighs 100grams? so that should be able to drive, uhh accounting for loses (1/2) than it should be able to run the truntable in your microwave for one second? - the qestion is, how long did it take for the styrofoam to get charged? - and would that time be better spent propelling a turbine? -the only advantage I can see is that in low wind conditions it could work better than a propellor/dyno. -the main disadvantage, I don't know of a material that can handle outdoor conditons and still be viably statically charged. (consider building house with 'tunneling' of outdoor conditions to foam interior layer?
--oh about chaneling power through air - it's been done... expect your computer mice to be baterryless soon enough (hopefully electronic noise can be overcome)
PS - a good invention would be foam panelling and a house construction that keeps the foam in good condition. The foam panelling would have integrated circuitry that channels power wirelessly to a main conduit built into the house along the walls.
eg. foamwalls in contact with PVC pipes running along walls. The conduit would be insulated from the rest of the house. The PVC conduit would then 'ground' to a main capacitator resovoir, where the static E gets converted to useable power., better yet setup 'honeycomb' mini resovirs as a part of the foam panelling, which automatically 'scale' the static E to a slightly more desireable level. even better, use the insulation section of the walls to have a material that also helps with storage.
--actually come to think of it, the best bet is to just make the entire home out of foam - but to design it in a electrical cell network. and just insulate the occupants from the electrocution!! -who cares about the visitors on the outside!!! -- consider the effincieny of drawing charge away and 'dioding' it.
