The Sun as a MHD generator: a new heating mechanism for the coronal loops and closed magnetic structures?

We investigate a possibility of heating of the loops and other closed magnetic structures in active regions of the solar corona by the flow of solar wind (plus other flows that may be present) across the magnetic field lines (that are perpendicular to the flow), in a similar manner as a conventional MHD generator works. A simple model is formulated which allows to calculate the typical currents generated by this mechanism. This enables to make a judgement whether the loops in solar active regions can be heated by the proposed mechanism through associated Ohmic dissipation. It is shown that if the heating region width is of the order of a few proton Larmor radii then the heating of coronal loops could be explained under this conjecture. This effectively means that a loop is represented by micro-threads with width of a few proton Larmor radii. Other implications of the model, such as a predicted spatial heat distribution along the loop are discussed.