  We propose a mechanism for efficient heating of the solar chromosphere, based
on non-ideal plasma effects. Three ingredients are needed for the work of this
mechanism: (1) presence of neutral atoms; (2) presence of a non-potential
magnetic field; (3) decrease of the collisional coupling of the plasma. Due to
decrease of collisional coupling, a net relative motion appears between the
neutral and ionized components, usually referred to as "ambipolar diffusion".
This results in a significant enhancement of current dissipation as compared to
the classical MHD case. We propose that the current dissipation in this
situation is able to provide enough energy to heat the chromosphere by several
kK on the time scale of minutes, or even seconds. In this paper, we show that
this energy supply might be sufficient to balance the radiative energy losses
of the chromosphere.
