Why don't we use the Earth's magnetic field to generate endless electricity for the whole world?

Question

Some time ago a man named Nicholae Tesla realized that the Earth is a huge electrical generator. He said that if humanity could create a copper cable long enough to circumnavigate the earth from South pole to North pole and back, we could use the power generated naturally by the earth's magnetic field and have enough power to light a billion New York-sized cities. I assure you this is true. So my question is really this: Why do you think we haven't we decided to use the most efficient form of renewable energy? At this point in history, we have the technology and engineering ability to achieve it, so what's the hold up?

For those of you questioning whether it's even possible. It is. I can be done from orbit at this point in time and spinning motion necessary is already achieved by the flow of molten iron under the earth's crust that generates the field in the first place. I do acknowledge that it would require more than one loop, but still is more feasible than a manned mission to Mars. Just not as sexy.

Answer 1

NASA did an experiment in space that showed that this idea might work. They strung a wire out from the shuttle and it developed a strong voltage just from passing through the earth's field. But then it burned out.

My fear is that if we actually did build an earth generator as described it would affect the rotation of the earth. You can't get something for nothing. You have to put mechanical energy into a generator to get electrical energy out of it. In this case the mechanical energy comes from the rotation of the earth. The earth is just coasting so extracting energy to make electricity would cause the rotation to slow down. Do we really want that?

Answer 2

Almost everyone here is wrong! The wire does not have to remain stationary as the earth spins beneath it to produce massive current. The core of the earth is rotating under the crust at several hundred miles per hour in relation to the crust. The Alaskan pipeline for example generates 1000's of amps and it is shunted to ground in some sections to prevent the pipe from generating too much power and oxidizing itself faster and possibly even melting if the entire length was ungrounded. In other sections that current is used to refrigerate the ice under the supports to keep them frozen in the summer so they do not sink into the mud as it thaws. The reason they do not tap this source was stated correctly though. They are concerned that a major industrial draw off the cores energy would affect the rotating core diminishing our planets electromagnetic field that protects us from cosmic and solar radiation. Do you really want to mess with something like that for some free electricity for a few generations? lol Anyway, you can do a simple experiment and just spool out 1000 feet of magnet wire in a giant loop oriented north and south in an oblong fashion and connect a meter to it's ends and you will get a voltage. Now imagine if it was a couple thousand miles long and as thick as the pipeline or thicker. That is also why long distance high tension power transmission lines run east to west as not to pick up a massive DC induced voltage. Also when they were testing the million hp rocket engines horizontally on the ground for the X1 experiments they always had U shaped exhaust pipes that would redirect the rockets exhaust 180 degrees so as not to affect the earths rotation from the engine being mounted firmly to the planet. Even though a million horse power is small they still didn't want to take any chances. Even slight changes can be catastrophic due to harmonic and centrifugal forces. If you don't know what it will cause it is better to err on the side of caution...I know this is an ancient post but all the arm chair physicists claiming it is impossible and stating ridiculous assumptions that the wire would have to be suspended so the earth could spin in it annoyed me! Slow people should not post responses! With any luck they will get filtered from the gene pool playing with microwave transformers or incinerate themselves making meth with the shake n bake method in a minivan! LMAO

Answer 3

To what would you anchor the coil so it wouldn't just turn with the earth? It's not renewable unless you find some other way to get the earth spinning again after you've converted its rotational energy into electricity. Who told you we have the technology and engineering ability to achieve it? Even if this were true, how much copper do you think you would need just to carry the electricity to a billion New York City's?

Also, the change of flux through the coil changes only slightly during the earth's rotation. If the magnetic poles were at the geographic poles, there would be practically no flux change, therefore practically no induced current.

Check your sources. I suspect Tesla knew better.

Answer 4

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RE:
Why don't we use the Earth's magnetic field to generate endless electricity for the whole world?
Some time ago a man named Nicholae Tesla realized that the Earth is a huge electrical generator. He said that if humanity could create a copper cable long enough to circumnavigate the earth from South pole to North pole and back, we could use the power generated naturally by the earth's...

Answer 5

Energy is induced into cables by a change in electric current. Try it for yourself. Take an empty toilet roll, wrap coated copper cable around it (many times), connect a lite bulb to the cable ends, then move a magnet in and out really fast. It will cause the bulb to glow.

However, you are stating that we would just leave the wire around the earth. Unless I am incorrect (and I may very well be), the earth's magnetic field isn't changing all that fast, so we would not be generating electricity.

Answer 6

Not effectively no. Though electricity can be conveyed by electromagnetism, the principle behind radios, the earth's magnetic field can only generate electricity like a bar magnet can, which requires energy input greater than the output. If you built ridiculously huge copper coils around the earth and oscillated them back and forth, then the magnetic field would move electrons around in the coil and generate charge. Or course, this is just a change in type of energy and not generation of energy per se, & this is, of course, completely unrealistic.

Answer 7

Think about the generator/alternator in your car.
Does either make electricity when the engine is off?
That is because the magnetic field (magnet inside the generator) is generating a field, but the wires in the coil around it are not moving. Current is generated when the magnetic field passes through the wires as they rotate through it.
Either the cable or the magnetic field would have to be moving.
How do you propose to suspend the cable such that the Earth's magnetic field can move through it?

Answer 8

First of all that's pretty hard to say for sure if that is true, even for a trained scientist, much less us. BUT, giving the benefit of the doubt, I would say the hold ups are this.

1) You would have to get the whole world in a agreement and pull money together which would probably be impossible, unless only contributing countries would benefit.

2) It is much more a strutual feat than it seems. Remember, you have to run material through sub zero lands, underwater, hot areas, and who knows what else. It's not an easy thing to do. NOT IMPOSSIBLE, just not easy at all.

3) Nuclear energy is created by cutting atoms in half. That's a **** load of energy. And there's a never ending supply. Why go to the lengths of surrounding the earth in wire when we still have this option. Ultimately we will prpobably be using an anti-matter machine that will generate even more power. It's just not logical to wrap the world in wire with all these other options still in place.

Answer 9

Don't you think if it was that easy we would've done it by now? There are thousands of scientists working throughout the world, I'm sure they've thought about it. A copper whire going about the earth is a practical impossibility, because to induce any electricity, the copper wire will have to constantly move side to side.

Answer 10

I think there is a big difference between possible and practical. even if the calculation of the amount of energy generated is correct, that it could power 1 billion cities the size of Tesla's New York (not the current one), the fact remains that we will use the cheapest method of electricity generation before moving to the next. right now it is coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels. next is solar and wind and finally nuclear.

the coil idea's biggest barrier is the sheer amount of copper wire that would need to be used. copper has many uses other than wire and most, if not all, the copper in the world would have to be re-purposed in order to make enough to go around the world. remember the more wire the greater the electricity generated. look at peak copper on wikipedia to get a better sense of my argument. Better to build space turbines that use solar to spin up and a dynamo effect to produce energy. since in space angular momentum would be preserved in the form of inertia and the energy in would be 'free' because it is solar and the amount needed to maintain rotation would be less than the output because of inertia.