okay how about this for far out yet concievable.....
You have a large permanent magnet on the ground. Ontop of this you put an electro-magnet with one end of the coil attached to a lightning rod and the other attached to ground. When the lightening strikes the rod, the elctro-magnet energizes causing repulsion between the two magnets forcing the top magnet to be lifted. The top magnet is also attached to a ratcheting type thing-ama-bob (the design is not finalized yet) that will not let the magnet fall. Now you have converted the lightening's energy into potential energy, and the ratcheting thing-ama-bob slowly lets the top magnet fall, but as it does, it spins generators.
MR. SPOCK RULES!!!!!
kevin