THE LIGHTNING LAB CONCEPT

The Nevada Lightning Laboratory (NLL) is a proposed research facility for generating the largest controlled lightning discharges possible.  A matched set of 12-story Tesla Coil towers will generate discharges over 300 feet in length, delivering a peak output of over 18 million volts.  Located 35 miles outside Las Vegas, Nevada, this facility will support new industrial and scientific research, and provide the public with educational demonstrations on an unprecedented scale.

Background.  The inspiration for the Lightning Lab concept arose from large electrical transformer simulations, which suggested there exists an ultimate practical size limit for machines such as Tesla Coils.  Intrigued by this idea, Greg Leyh, a power systems engineer from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, set out to design and build a machine that would explore this critical limit.  The result is the 12 story Tesla tower design illustrated above.

(How Does It Work?)

Building such a machine will clearly push the state-of-the-art in high pulse power technology.  However recent technological breakthroughs will contribute significantly towards a cost-effective and reliable design approach.  

Scientific and Industrial Motivations.  New scientific instruments historically produce new discoveries, modify our existing theories and greatly expand our knowledge. The Lightning Lab will allow researchers to pursue many new scientific and industrial research programs, including:

  • Lightning survivability testing for full-scale aircraft, vehicles and critical systems
  • Re-creating relativistic breakdown avalanches and other large-scale anomalous events
  • Pulsed calibrations of the ionosphere, allowing accurate global weather data measurement
  • R&D towards developing advanced lightning control techniques

Developing a detailed, working knowledge of the physics within a lightning strike is the first step towards potentially controlling, diverting, and harnessing natural lightning.

Public Education Opportunities.  Beyond our scientific mission, an essential goal of the Lightning Lab is to inspire scientific curiosity and rekindle the importance of science in the public consciousness.  Towards this goal the Lightning Lab will produce a series of unique scientific lectures for the general public, demonstrating electricity on an unprecedented scale.  The physical scale of this facility will allow electrical exhibitions never before witnessed by an audience, including:

  • Flying a helicopter through the live electrical discharges
  • Full-scale lightning strikes on vehicles, buildings, trees
  • Throwing lightning arcs hundreds of feet, with a human hand
  • A full scale re-enactment of Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment

As funding allows, our educational program will expand to include interactive public exhibits, an electrical museum, a scientific lecture series featuring invited speakers, and student internships.