In this instructable I will teach you how to suck energy from this planet called earth, even I don't know exactly how it works, but it works, can't argue with results!

Sorry, no video will be added, where I live it's been snowing and it's producing terrible results. Right before it started snowing it produced a thrid of a volt in a couple of hours, now that it's snowing and that it's officially winter it's only charging up to 0.03 volts, which is terrible. If you know how to solve this problem then please comment!

THIS IS REAL, NOT A HOAX

Step 1: The Theory

This was invented by the ultimate genius of all time, Nikola Tesla. I'll basically try and crack it down to how I understand it, and how a normal person would understand it (mind you this is how I interpret many difference sources, what I'm saying may not be right)

The earth and it's atmosphere is basically a giant capacitor, when lightning strikes it discharges it. Tesla's device sucked power from that infinitely charging capacitor to charge a man made capacitor. By putting an electrode in the air and an electrode in the ground, you tap into these energy source to charge your own capacitor.

Step 2: The Materials

What you need is:

Aluminum Foil

Glue (not shown)

Paper

An Electrolytic capacitor

alligator clips

A multimeter

Step 3: Clarification

This instructable is a proof of concept. If you would like to line the roof of your house with this stuff then you should be smart enough to do it if you're going to attempt it. This has some advantages and disadvantages over solar cells:

Pros:
Cheaper
Lighter
Easier to Make
Doesn't require sun
It won't really break

Cons:
Doesn't produce as much electricity for the same size "cells"

Step 4: Tape

Tape the foil strip to the big piece of aluminum foil so that it acts as a lead, make sure the aluminum foils are touching.

Step 5: Glueing

Glue a piece of aluminum foil to the piece of paper. I'm not sure why this is necessary, but Tesla said so. Tesla said to insulate 1 side, so I insulated it with paper.

Step 6: Clip It

Clip an alligator clip to the aluminum foil and attach the other end to the positive side of your capacitor. Clip the other alligator clip to a ground such as the third prong on a wall socket or a metal water pipe (make sure it's all metal, not plastic).

Step 7: You're Done!?!

It may not look like much, but you just created a device that will obtain you free electricity! During my experiment using a 560uF capacitor it took about an hour to get to .08 volts. Not bad considering the size of the panel and how low it is. Later I got after several hours 1/3 of a volt, exciting!

Step 8: Taking It Further

Now that this proof of concept is done you can scale up!

You can:

Line your house with it

Make conductive balloons (should work really well) so that you get both huge surface area and a high altitude. The only reason why I didn't do this was because I didn't have the resources.

Use this as a science fair project and win 1st prize.

I'm going to be experimenting with aluminum tape and see if it works really effectively outside

Step 9: Trouble Shooting

1) My capacitor charged and then discharged.
Something went wrong with your panel so that you capacitor is actually emiting the little energy that it has.

2) My capacitor isn't charging.
Make sure that your ground is a real ground.
Using it outside works better for some reason
use a smaller value capacitor (between 1000uF and 100uF is good)