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Would it be possible to do multiple vertical shaft tubes, straight down rather than a huge flat thing?

I feel like in 100 years time we'll have all these loopy pipe arrays all over the place being a pain to clean up...

Yes, this is usually how it's done when a large field doesn't happen to be available. Vertical boreholes are much more expensive to make than shallow trenches, though.

Depends on what your ground looks like. If it's bedrock at the surface and you'd have to dynamite to clear a large patch, then drilling a small hole will be much less expensive and much more efficient.

If it is just plain brown dirt for miles down, then digging some trenches might be a better solution.

If it's a few feet of sand until you hit the water table, then I have no idea what the best solution is.

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