... oh, this isn't about some IRC mod.

Nevertheless, same rules apply.

Aparently it's about this article: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2010/pdf/5469.pdf

1) Producing the desired magnetic field with the proposed wire-loop can't work, you can probably get a few gigawatt from Maxwell rotating in his grave in result of that paper.

2) The electric current in the wireloop is aparently driven by a static electric field, ever hear about static electric fields being conservative?

3) Somehow electric current is generated by catching electrons, but where do they leave the System?

4) Where does the energy come from to separate electrons and protons from the plasma? To put some spatial distance between positive and negative charge you need energy.

5) A sail of 8.400 km with (square or what?) shall produce 10^27 W of energy. That means over a 4-Billionth (1/4*10^9) of the solid angle of the sun it produces 2.5 times the total energy output of the sun. Surrounding the sun completely with these contraptions should yield 10^10 times the total energy production of the sun.

This paper can't even stand up to basic highschool-physics.