Lightning strikes over a year are around 1.4 billion, and of those, only about 25 per cent are actually ground strikes since most (75 per cent) are intra-cloud and cloud-cloud, and cannot be harnessed. That leaves only 350 million lightning strikes that could possibly be harnessed.

Why can't we harness lightning for power?

Lightning is both incredibly powerful and crazy fast. Each strike would force about fifty thousand amps of current into a battery in just microseconds. No existing battery could survive this onslaught; batteries need to charge up more slowly.

Can lightning be caught stored and used?

This cannot be harvested directly as electricity can and could also damage equipment. Once captured, the energy would have to be stored and released when needed, as is done with renewable energies such as wind and solar power. This adds extra planning and expense to the exercise, but it is possible.