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Here's the thing about powering the climbers. They are most likely to be powered by power beaming. This technology is in development and works like this. You convert electricity to microwave radiation in one place and from there you beam it to a receptor which converts the microwave radiation back to electricity. That seems to be the most promising technology for powering the climbers. Power beaming is also likely to be among the first commercial uses of space aside from communications. Solar power collected with greater efficiency in outer space will be beamed down to earth to provide clean, essentially infinitely renewable energy. Somebody mentioned lightning strikes. Lightning strikes are a potential problem, but the idea of using some kind of lightning rod to protect the tether is not so far-fetched. While I'm not certain of the highest altitude occurrence of electrical storms, it is inside the atmosphere, so the added weight from a lightning rod would only affect, at most, the bottom 80 miles of the 62000 mile tether. It would likely not affect the strength requirements of the tether all that much. As for airplanes, the tether would not be put anywhere close to major air traffic routes, and navigational systems can easily steer airplanes clear of it. Of course there is a lot to overcome before a space elevator can become a reality. We need a higher strength tether material. We need to improve power beaming. We need climbers that can either ascend rapidly, or slowly but with large payloads. Despite these challenges the benefits of a space elevator are enormous. If it can really be done for only $10 billion, it would be a fire sale price tag.