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In many parts of the world, the rock strata are like a layer-
cake. In many such cases, there are porous, water-
saturated strata separated by impermeable layers.
The water-saturated, permeable layers are, in general,
reasonably conductive by virtue of dissolved salts.
What we have, therefore,
is effectively a giant capacitor -
two layers of conductor, separated by an insulator.
Depending on the area of the structure and the thickness
of the non-conductive rock, this capacitance is likely to be
on the order of many zergoFarads.
So, in these cases, simply sink a couple of mine shafts.
The first shaft runs all the way down to the lower
conductive stratum. A few tons of molten copper is
poured in, filling the very bottom of this shaft; a big
insulated cable then connects this copper to the surface.
The second shaft only runs down as far as the upper
conductive layer, and is likewise connected to a big cable.
Gadulka! You now have an immense system for
capacitative storage of power from fluctuating sources
such as wind or solar.
Gadulka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadulka
[normzone, Jul 24 2015]
[link]
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The Zerg Overmind does not approve of your discovery of their zergofarad unit of measurement. |
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Probably a small scale mockup would be good first. That copper will be costly and a pain in the butt to retrieve. I was going to suggest a sandbox but the prospect of a giant sandbox capacitor would provoke too much glee from certain readers. Better: a large bucket with a mockup of relevant strata. This bucket is sited far away from kiddies of any sort. |
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An ideal candidate for lightning storage Shirley? Can
any interesting ions be introduced to make the
chemistry a bit more fun? |
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Thankyou for the link, [normz]. A gadulka is, of
course, a type of voila. |
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(link) surely the Earth's capacitance is in microfarads and
not nanofarads? 600x10^-6?
Important facts and all that.... |
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Great premise. It should be easy to test this premise in a
small prototype setup. Just need some rocks & water... |
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Probably some clay too, right? |
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// surely the Earth's capacitance is in
microfarads// |
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It depends on the area of the strata, and the
distance between conductive layers. |
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Suppose we can find strata which extend over a
10x10km area (fairly easy, one would think), and
with a 10m insulating stratum between the
conductors. The capacitance is then given by: |
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where p is the permittivity of the insulator (we'll
call it 1), q is about 10^-11, and A and d are the
area and separation, in m2 and m. |
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C = 1 x 10^-11 x 10^8 /10 = 10^-4, or about 100µF. |
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Assuming decent insulating properties for the
middle layer, we ought to be able to run this up to
at least 10MV, which equates to ahout 10^10J of
stored energy. Which is not unsignficant. |
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// surely the Earth's capacitance is in microfarads//
I was referring to the "Earth as a spherical capacitor" link,
which says (6.3x10^6)/(9x10^9) = approx 700x10^-9 for
some reason. |
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If such a region exists, maybe it has already accumulated some charge. It stands to reason that it would. Maybe you can just plug in and go. Lots of other useful things have accumulated under the earth and are waiting for us to use them. |
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//I was referring to the "Earth as a spherical
capacitor" link,// I think that link assumes that one
conductor is the core, and the other is at the surface
- much too far apart. |
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I would think there would be some shorting out between the
layers due to salt water and the like. |
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Suppose deep layers do sometimes accumulate charge. Drilling operations would enounter this charge. There would be sparks, current and the like. I wonder if this happens? |
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Is it possible to overcharge it, reach breakdown voltage,
and blow up a continent? |
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Theoretically possible. We could test it on Wales and
see how it goes. |
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