The above picture depicts what occurs when a lightning bolt is created. I just learned this on an Annenburg CPB show called the "Mechanical Universe".
Why I find this interesting is that it is a cascade reaction. Which is the same kind of reaction that lasers use, and the same kind of reaction that atomic bombs use, and is the same kind of reaction that some chemical reactions use, and also it's the same kind of reaction as avalanches.
It is potential energy that is released all at once in a chain reaction.
This is not exactly free energy because the charges have to be built up ahead of time before the particles react in this way.
This is totally separate from perpetual motion devices or free energy devices. "Perpetual motion" as a term is misleading because the planets rotate around the sun in perpetual motion already. But free energy is the term I like to use for machines that produce more energy or work than is put into them.
With todays technology, these types of free energy machines may be possible in the outer solar system. The reasoning is that it is cold enough for superconductors out there to work constantly, which means that you can have a continuous energy loop with zero loss of charge.
This may or may not work. But if there was a solid state way of having an AC circuit with a superconductor then you could potentially create energy. This may be a dead end street though, now that I think about it, because of mechanical devices (Such as a free energy electric motor) need mechanical connections of different non-superconducting materials that also stick together, and the problem of lubricants(graphite might be best). And also there is no such thing yet of a superconducting AC circuit as far as I know at least.
