TY - JOUR
T1 - Electric Power Generation from Earth's Rotation through its Own Magnetic Field
AU - Chyba, Christopher F.
AU - Hand, Kevin P.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank three anonymous referees for their reviews, and we are grateful for helpful discussions with T.H. Chyba, R.L. Garwin, M.J. Rees, P.J. Thomas, E.L. Turner, and three anonymous colleagues. We thank G.Z. McDermott and G. Cooper for administrative support, B.A. Lin for reference assistance, and M. Northrup of National Magnetics Group Inc. for help with materials. C.F.C. acknowledges research funds from the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. K.P.H. acknowledges support through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exobiology Program (Grant No.NNH09ZDA001N).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Physical Society.
PY - 2016/7/29
Y1 - 2016/7/29
N2 - We examine electric power generation from Earth's rotation through its own nonrotating magnetic field (that component of the field symmetric about Earth's rotation axis). There is a simple general proof that this is impossible. However, we identify a loophole in that proof and show that voltage can be continuously generated in a low-magnetic-Reynolds-number conductor rotating with Earth, provided magnetically permeable material is used to ensure curl(v×B0)≠0 within the conductor, where B0 derives from the axially symmetric component of Earth's magnetic flux density, and v is Earth's rotation velocity at the conductor's location. We solve the relevant equations for one laboratory realization, and from this solution, we predict the voltage magnitude and sign dependence on system dimensions and orientation relative to Earth's rotation. The effect, which would be available nearly globally with no intermittency, requires testing and further examination to see if it can be scaled to practical emission-free power generation.
AB - We examine electric power generation from Earth's rotation through its own nonrotating magnetic field (that component of the field symmetric about Earth's rotation axis). There is a simple general proof that this is impossible. However, we identify a loophole in that proof and show that voltage can be continuously generated in a low-magnetic-Reynolds-number conductor rotating with Earth, provided magnetically permeable material is used to ensure curl(v×B0)≠0 within the conductor, where B0 derives from the axially symmetric component of Earth's magnetic flux density, and v is Earth's rotation velocity at the conductor's location. We solve the relevant equations for one laboratory realization, and from this solution, we predict the voltage magnitude and sign dependence on system dimensions and orientation relative to Earth's rotation. The effect, which would be available nearly globally with no intermittency, requires testing and further examination to see if it can be scaled to practical emission-free power generation.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.014017
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.014017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84982709396
SN - 2331-7019
VL - 6
JO - Physical Review Applied
JF - Physical Review Applied
IS - 1
M1 - 014017
ER -