I was going to say magnetic induction myself...
Hrm... I'm wondering how complex we can make this thing. As an aspirant engineer, I know that Occam's Razor and KISS apply here. Only the simplest and most elegant solution will suffice.
As mentioned, induction sounds like a good way to go, turning the Io flux-tube into what will probably be the galaxy's largest step-down transformer.
Another idea that comes to mind is to somehow harness all that radiation directly. I bet if you run a series of boiler-tubes through the flux-stream you'd have a nice little steam generator. Or why not a more direct method through a thermo-voltaic option?
Next: transmission. We got all kinds of options from tethers to beams... beams sound like the best way to go. You can bounce one from one satellite to another in order to reach your target destination. And if you can keep the focus tight enough, you can probably even beam surplus out as far as Pluto. The million credit question is what should the medium for beam-transmission be? There's a myriad of ways for energy to be transmitted in such a manner, and with Handwavium involved many of them become rather efficient. This could boil down to a contest of, "Okay, what's more nifty than that?"
After that, you have distribution - really a minor thing after dealing with the hassle of capturing it from the source and then transmitting it over the vast interplanetary distances. I, for one, favor the idea of the hydrogen-cooled superconductive powergrid - it distributes energy in the forms of electricity and hydrogen.
Sooooo.... What'll it be, Boss?
Hrm... I'm wondering how complex we can make this thing. As an aspirant engineer, I know that Occam's Razor and KISS apply here. Only the simplest and most elegant solution will suffice.
As mentioned, induction sounds like a good way to go, turning the Io flux-tube into what will probably be the galaxy's largest step-down transformer.
Another idea that comes to mind is to somehow harness all that radiation directly. I bet if you run a series of boiler-tubes through the flux-stream you'd have a nice little steam generator. Or why not a more direct method through a thermo-voltaic option?
Next: transmission. We got all kinds of options from tethers to beams... beams sound like the best way to go. You can bounce one from one satellite to another in order to reach your target destination. And if you can keep the focus tight enough, you can probably even beam surplus out as far as Pluto. The million credit question is what should the medium for beam-transmission be? There's a myriad of ways for energy to be transmitted in such a manner, and with Handwavium involved many of them become rather efficient. This could boil down to a contest of, "Okay, what's more nifty than that?"
After that, you have distribution - really a minor thing after dealing with the hassle of capturing it from the source and then transmitting it over the vast interplanetary distances. I, for one, favor the idea of the hydrogen-cooled superconductive powergrid - it distributes energy in the forms of electricity and hydrogen.
Sooooo.... What'll it be, Boss?