A NEW SOURCE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY FROM LIGHTNING STROKE:A SMALL SCALE SYSTEM Abstract-This paper describes about the

method for harvesting new source of renewable energy from lightning stroke in a small scale system .It is known that lightning can produce huge scale of electricity. The restriction in harvesting the gratis lightning energy is regarding the process to detain and store the energy within a microsecond according to the typical lightning wave shape.Due to that, a small scale-scale laboratory is set up based on natural characteristics of lightning. The purpose is to determine the performance and potential of the sampling capacitors as storage for the electricity produced by lightning.In this paper, the results of the laboratory experiment focusing on the sampling capacitors were presented. The capacitors are subjected to 1.2/5s, 4.2kV single -stroke impulse voltages.The results show that the small-scale system successfully illustrates the concept of capturing energy from lightning return strokes

that can be a potential source of renewable energy. INTRODUCTION Generally,the challenges to carry out this research can be divided into a few obstacles ; first the way to tap the lightning energy , then the ability to attain the lightning impulse voltage in a short period of time , and finally the method to retain the energy in the storage devices . The energy storage system is required to absorb the lightning as quickly as possible since the lightning rising time is in the order of a 1.2 microsecond [5].Moreover, the energy storage is ought to keep the energy as long as possible until it is used for another purpose .In this small-scale system ,a high speed switching is used for driving the isolating system and to make the system more realistic . It is known that, to obtain the real lightning energy is very difficult as well as very dangerous [1, 2 and 3]. According to the previous studies , tesla coil is a high voltage coil that produces ionic emissions

in the form of electrical discharges in many times [8] .Many people have been eager to create these discharges , which may be termed as man- made lightning. Usually it is used to generate very high voltage, high current and high frequency alternative current electricity .However, very different from the lightning generated in thunderstorm that is different in frequency, energy, and obviously how the discharge is generated. Due to that, this project employs the lightning impulse voltage generator to produce a mock lightning in order to build up a small scale system that can harvest the lightning energy. CAPACITORS AS ENERGY STORAGE Considering the battery technologies , the energy density is high ,but it has slow charging and discharging capability .Capacitors on the other hand have a

limited energy density but fast charging and discharging capability .In this research ,Metalized polypropylene Film capacitors (KNU 1910) is used to in order to study electrical characteristics. The polypropylene film capacitor was selected to be used in the testing because it is cheap , have high temperature stability .readily available and it is widely used in high frequency ,DC and pulse circuit s applications .Many polypropylene film have a tolerance about 5% to10% ,which is adequate for many applications. It also has a long life due to self healing effect [6, 9] and is suitable for high current. LABORATORY TESTING ACTIVITIES The experiment is segregated into three stages to facilitate data comparison and analysis .Thus , in this part a detail of testing for every stage is given .Furthermore ,this section will clarify the information that must be acquired and attained from every stage of testing. STAGE 1 The intention of stage 1 is to build up a 5000V single stroke impulse voltage. Therefore , the right combination of

resistance value and capacitance value has to be clarified in order to get the standard impulse wave shape .The wave shape must follow 1.2/50s front and tail time of the standard parameter. Figure 1 shows a typical circuit layout commonly used for single stroke impulse voltage generator .In addition; Figure 2 shows the circuit arrangement in stage 1 in a high voltage laboratory. The arrangement comprises of high voltage dc supply from rectifier, couple of sphere, one unit of wave shaping resistance which are wave front resistor ,RD and wave tail resistor, RE ,one unit charging capacitor CS one unit capacitor CB as load capacitance . t f =3 RD CS C B C S+C B t t =0.7(RD+RE)(CS+CB) Afterward , the discharge voltage at capacitor CB , gives the desired voltage impulse wave shape .As shown in Figure 6 , there is a voltage divider at CB side for measurements taking by using oscilloscope .The front time and tail time

is controlled by varying the value of RD and RE can be verified by equation 1 for front time ,t f and equation 2 for tail time tt . STAGE 2 At stage 2, the generated impulse voltage produced in Stage 1 is applied to a number of sample capacitors with different capacitance value. At this stage , the process and the equipment involved in Stage 1 remain the same .Except, it has an additional circuit which is connected in parallel with the capacitor CB as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 .The additional circuit is consisted of three units of post insulator and one units of sampling capacitor. This section will explain the method for taping the sampling capacitor with the single stage impulse voltage generator. Generally, the gapped type lightning arrester is considered as the most practical in the existing technology .A lightning arrester with a series gap for transmission lines has been developed to prevent faults due to lightning[7].Hence, the direct taping method that is

implemented in this small scale system is comparable of surge arresters. Insulator A is connected to the load capacitor CB that is from impulse generator .Subsequently , one unit of sample capacitor is located and connected between insulator B and C .Furthermore , the insulator A and B is not connected and it has a gap about 2mm. The space gap acts as a switch .If the gap between the copper at both insulator is closed enough certain voltage, flashover will takes place .Generally, for one millimeter, 3000V needed for a flashover to occur. During flashover period, the gap will act as a closed switch and simultaneously completed the circuit and the sampling capacitor will be charged. Throughout these processes, the electrical characteristics and the time response of the sampling capacitor can be obtained and measured via HV probe. STAGE 3 The testing at Stage 3 is almost similar with Stage 2. The only different is the addition of high speed switching circuit using IGBT device. The purpose of

the IGBT switch is to isolate the capacitor from any connection once the capacitor is charged .In the beginning the IGBT switch is set to be in a close position .Then , the impulse voltage is applied to charge the sampling capacitor .After 200ms , the switch will be opened and cut off the capacitor from any connection in order to avoid the capacitor from discharging . This testing is purposely to investigate the remaining voltage in the sampling capacitor. After the IGBT switch is opened, the capacitor is isolating from any connection for approximately 15 minutes .Then the voltage and the decaying times of the capacitor are rechecked. Figure 5 and Figure 6 illustrate the location of IGBT switch in the testing circuit. CONCLUSIONS The present work has been directed towards a better understanding of harvesting the lightning energy in a small - scale system .Due to that, the research work was focused on the development of a small scale laboratory experiment. It was done by injecting

The sampling capacitor, which represent as energy storage device, with lightning impulse voltage as mock lightning. The race to develop the technology in harvesting the lightning energy among the scientist and engineers is ongoing .Since , there are no mature studies on this technology and the scientific literature can hardly be found , therefore this project is carried out to be as a sensible part of the research studies .In addition , the experimental result gives a meaningful indicator regarding the effort to create a small scale system for harvesting the lightning impulse energy . As a final point, the small scale system which has been proposed in this project is capable of retaining the incoming impulse voltage. It should be noted that the final system of this project would provide an understanding of the system Principle and furthermore give a significant contribution for further research. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to Faculty of Electrical Engineering ,

University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) ,Malaysia for given the opportunities on using the facilities of high voltage equipment throughout research activity . REFERENCE 1)H.Z. Abidin and R. Ibrahim, Thunderstorm Day