Nevada Lightning Laboratory

Nevada Lightning Laboratory (NLL) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Staff are researching large-scale natural electrical phenemonena and the wireless transmission of electrical energy.
Mission
Scientific research
To provide new research opportunities into electrical physics on the very large scale using a system capable of triggering a wide range of large-scale electrical phenomena that exist only in nature, such as lightning and the auroras.
Industrial research
To provide the world’s largest high voltage test facility allowing researchers to take measurements on and collect performance data from highly energetic high-power electrical oscillators and related equipment.
Public Education
To inspire scientific curiosity and emphasize the importance of science, NLL plans to produce a series of electrical physics demonstration lectures for the general public. The educational program is to include interactive public exhibits, an electrical museum, a scientific lecture series featuring invited speakers, and student internships.
Facilities
The San Francisco Engineering Laboratory
A 7000 sq.ft. hi-bay laboratory space in San Francisco with an overhead gantry crane, loading ramp, office areas and three-phase power. Twin 1:12 scale NLL prototype phase-coupled, high-voltage electrical oscillators are a scale model of the full-scale NLL system design. The SF Lab supports engineering studies, prototyping of mechanical and electrical subassemblies for the NLL system design, and development of control system components. The facility also supports prototyping of the 50,000A NLL primary drive system including 6500V high power solid-state components. The resonators of the prototype system exhibit a strong tendency to couple electrical energy wirelessly over sizeable distances.
The Nevada Lightning Laboratory
Located approximately 10 mi south of Boulder Dam in southern Nevada, a twin set of Tesla Coil transformers will be capable of generating controlled lightning discharges over 300 feet in length. As planned, it will be the first facility large enough to generate relativistic electrical discharges, providing opportunities to study, and possibly control, the mechanisms of natural lightning.

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