The Earth produces a moving magnetic field (small teslas, but large extent yes?). Moving magnetic fields produce electrical current, right? Could you add "geomagnetic power" to other clean/renewable sources with the right technical solution, or is it fundamentally impossible?
I wouldn't expect a lot of discussion about it.
THat's just 1 experiment!
We've been nerd sniped ;-)
Anyway, my next idea is what about tapping the Earth-Sun coupling. This is not "solar PV" territory, but rather the energy that the sun dumps into the Earth that is channeled through the field and produces effects like auroras, particle cascades.
The crazy thing is, this is an enormous amount of energy:
- 10–100 GW quiet, up to 1–10 TW (or more) in big storms.
It's global, but concentrated by field lines into ring-shaped auroral ovals over the poles. Would be cool if there was a way to tap it. It doesn't need daylight, unlike solar. It's constant, and 10-100x more in solar storms. Crazy power. Would be very cool to tap.
The ionosphere can be modulated, which is what HAARP proved. Back when Tesla was doing stuff, a Gigawatt seemed like unlimited power, now... not so much.