Sounds suspiciously like a violation of the first law of Thermodynamics.
BTW, I think that Isaac Asimov’s definitions of the three laws are both accurate and somewhat amusing:
1st Law: You can’t win.
2nd Law: You can’t break even.
3rd Law: You don’t understand the rules of the game.
As a side note, there is in fact an atmospheric electric field that decreases with altitude. It has been demonstrated that this potential differential can lead to painful shocks when dealing with an isolated (ungrounded) vertical conductor e.g. pole, tower). However, I believe that the amperage is low and am not aware of it having been shown as a practical power source.
True, and the voltage gradient is substantial. Ben Franklin was on to something alright, even without a thunderstorm there are voltage differentials of a thousand volts per meter and the higher you go the greater the difference since the "ground" is your zero refference. But you are also right regarding the available current, it is micro amps. You can generate sparks and not much more, and be glad that all that happens!
Some years back I witnessed an interesting demonstration of an "electrostatic" motor, think DC motor then replace magnets with electric fields. Plus repels plus and attracts minus just like north repels north and attracts south. Same principle, just different construction. It turns out that you can get "free" power out of the air, off a kite string (wire), just not very much. As a matter of fact, it so slight that special pains have to be taken so that the rotor even turns. Like supporting the rotor by iron disks floating in pools of mercury to get the lowest possible running friction. The thing runs but so do those little light bulb shaped gadgets with the black and white pinwheel when exposed to sunlight. The amount of power developed is minuscule but it served as an interesting demonstration of engineering principles.
Regards,
GtG
I thought his Third Law was, "You can't even get out of the game."