Because the crappy reporting gave no information about what kind of power this "invention" creates. Electricity has voltage and current. Voltage is potential energy, current is kinetic energy. They both matter for the feasibility of a power source. This is the reason why you can power your entire home from a generator the size of a footstool but if you covered your entire roof with photovoltaics you'd be lucky to run the refrigerator and the vacuum cleaner at the same time.
More like by splitting atoms and releasing the bonding energy in the process. Let's gloss over the toxic waste they make as part of the "clean energy" argument huh?
Wrong. Lightning is a result of atmospheric disturbances, driven by the sun. The entire atmosphere is a giant heat engine. The power source in the case of lightning is the sun.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]