Power Plant
A Power Plant is a green technology that combines Literomancy, sustainability, and science in a unique way. In essence, it is a giant tree, grown with the aid of magic, that uses wind and kenetic power to generate energy. This energy is then transferred via a fine mesh of wires, actively growing throughout the Plant, into Literomantic Batteries for storage, or into electrical generators and relay stations to create electricity. A fully-grown Power Plant can be up to 300 feet tall.
Utility
A Power Plant is capable of generating the same massive power output as a large hydroelectric dam, which is significantly more effective than even the largest nuclear power plant. In the current political climate, with growing support for nuclear disarmament and moving away from technologies that lead to climate change, there is a great deal of public excitement over their creation.
Manufacturing
In order to construct a Power Plant, a Literomancer needs to assemble, in the location where the Plant is to be planted:
The same apparatus and infrastructure that hooks a major hydroelectric dam into the power grid
300 lbs of silver, gold, or other metal with excellent conductivity
A large leaf maple sapling
A redwood seed
Electrical engineers must build the transfer station and prepare it to be hooked up prior to construction. Preparing the sapling requires about a week, including planting, watering, and making sure its root system is firmly established. The conductive metal is buried 10 feet beneath the roots of the sapling.
A literomancer then weaves an enchantment to literomantically splice size genes from the redwood tree into the maple sapling. Another enchantment rapidly grows the tree to a minimum of 20 feet in height, and directs it to lay wire for the metal along its leaves, next to the veins, and through its trunk, by drawing upon the conductive metal. A third enchantment hooks the wire into the power grid along the length of its large, twisty roots.
Note that silver is the most conductive metal known, so any Power Plant that uses a different conductive metal is likely to be less effective in its output. However, this might be a trade off worth exploring, since silver tarnishes and other conductive metals, such as gold, do not. Currently, the silver used is partially protected from weather by a boost of literomancy every few months.
Additional conductive metal must also be provided occasionally as the Plant grows.
Social Impact
Over the past two years that the Stuart Lake Power Plant has been online, it has generated an average of 77 TWh (terawatt-hours) of electricity per year. This is superseded only by the Three Gorges Dam in China (111.8 TWh per year,) and the Itaipu Dam, on the Brazil-Paraguay border (103 TWh per year.) By contrast, this is considerably greater than even the largest nuclear power plants, which produce about 8 TWh annually.
In addition, the boreal forest in the Stuart Lake area has seen its risk of forest fires decrease by 22%. Precipitation has increased by about 10% annually, and many plants that had begun disappearing as the drought conditions took hold are making a comeback.
While Power Plants maintain their leaves year round, unlike a typical deciduous tree, they do lose some due to weather damage and other natural causes from time to time. These leaves are highly sought after by fashion designers and literomancer-crafters.
Discovery
Princess Rowean of House Lapin has long held an interest in sustainability and green technologies. When Literomancy reawakened in 2020, she immediately began experimenting with ways to combine magic and science to find ways in which to live more lightly on the Earth, and thus, mitigate the effects of climate change. It was she who proposed the idea of an underground garden that ran on aquaculture, which resulted in the creation of El-Ahrairah's Garden, and her experiments led to the development of the Sun Flowers that make it possible. It was she who most strongly supported the community and victory gardens movement and the activities of Frith's Gardeners. And it was she who led the charge to make mass transport so widely available in the Lapin Protectorate, leading to the development of The HYLEX Cottontail Line and the expanding availability of Transcontinental Portals. The Power Plant was one of her many experiments, utilizing the Princess' process of "literomantic construction." The idea of using some form of plant, and embracing its photosynthetic processes to generate energy, was not new. Teams of scientists and engineers had been working on similar ideas for some time. However, the Princess has always made it a point to stay up-to-date on developments in green energy, and she enlisted the aid of some of these professionals in making her vision a reality. Extensive research and development went into creating the project in its current form. Once the first Power Plant had been brought online, further research in conjunction with Novamoonlight, Librarian of House Ailurus, resulted in significant improvements to the design, drawing upon her own understanding of, and interest in, the effectiveness of wind power.WIP
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Stuart Lake Power Plant by Pixabay
Parent Technologies
Access & Availability
Currently, there are only two active Power Plants in the world, as the technology is at the cutting edge of literomantic science. One is located near Stuart Lake, close to Fort St. John, BC, Lapin Protectorate, and the other is at a test site at Okoboji in north-central Iowa, at the northern (Meles) border of the Ailurus Protectorate. Two more will go online in the Lapin and Ailurus Protectorates this year. Several more are under development, and House Lapin is offering to trade their seedlings and the technology to other Protectorates in return for other methods of generating sustainable energy through Literomancy.
Complexity
Power Plants require routine maintenance from a Literomancer, because as they grow more naturally, they require more conductive metal to maintain optimal conductivity. Large leaf maples were chosen as the model because their leaves were best shaped to take advantage of shifts in the wind that could be effectively harnessed to generate power in the form of motive force. However, their size means that not only do they represent a potential aerial hazard — and therefore, should be established in areas with minimal air traffic — but ideally, they should be planted near bodies of water, as they require a considerable amount of water during growth, and once they reach adult height, can generate their own rainforest-like microclimates. Enthusiasts have proposed that they be situated to help reclaim water in drought-ridden areas, which would help fight climate change on two different levels at once.
Large leaf maples were chosen as the model for the Power Plant due to their wind-harnessing potential by Pixabay
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