I wonder, if that was done, how much energy would be transferred from the atmosphere (condensing water vapor transfers a huge amount of energy as heat), and what impact that might have on climate instability. I also wonder if there’s a way to transfer the heat energy to somewhere “safer”, like underground.
And if these could be used in places that aren’t as bone dry, even better. I mean all the big powerful storms have been bigger and more powerful because of all the extra moisture in the air.. if we could throw these everywhere, pull some of that moisture out, and use it to supply portable water instead of drawing from reservoirs, that seems like it might be a many-win option.
ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I would guess there would be no heat impact on the climate. The same heat was already in the climate, it’ll be expelled in a similar way.
Fossils fuels extract stored energy and burn it, but it’s not the heat they create that warms the climate. It’s the CO2 they release that reduces the rate at which heat is expelled from the planet causing additional energy to be retained.
This type of technology may reduce climate change if it’s used instead of desalination powered by fossils fuels. Or if the heat that was generated was captured and used for heating homes instead of fossils.
The amount of energy we get from the sun far exceeds how much energy we can produce. We can’t really impact the climate by cooling and warming the planet directly. It’s leveraging effect of greenhouse gasses insulating the planet which causes climate change.