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0 pointscoldtea5y ago0 comments

So in the end it's a glorified boiler!

0 comments

as far as i am aware, solar power is the only prevalent power source that does not derive from spinning a dynamo. Besides wind (and perhaps there, too) almost all of the force used to spin dynamos includes some kind of boiling (eg: dams happen to use the force of the water after the "boil"/evaporation, nuclear, coal, natural gas, etc are all steam-based thermo-mechanical power plants.)

zajio1am5y ago

Note that gas powerplants are combined cycle power plants, they contain both gas turbine and steam turbine, so part of their spinning power (from gas turbine) is not based of boiling.

waterhouse5y ago

Dumb question: Is it possible to make a photovoltaic cell that works with infrared or longer wavelengths? ... Googling says there is research and some claimed results.

In theory, one could have "generate heat, and have the apparatus surrounded by a vacuum, surrounded by infrared photovoltaics" be the new universal backend for power generation. I have no idea about the associated efficiencies, of course.

ben_w5y ago

Certainly the only major electrical generation method, but MHD and thermocouples can be the appropriate solution sometimes, and if you count storage systems as well as primary production, there are also fuel cells & batteries.

laurencerowe5y ago

As well as steam engines there are also small scale generators using internal combustion engines and gas turbines which spin the dynamo directly.

adamesque5y ago

Same as a regular fission plant if I'm not mistaken!

willis9365y ago

A glorified boiler with dense and abundant fuel!

We would have never entered the industrial era without boilers.

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