Yeah about that.
Those are termosolar powerplant, they use the sun to boil water and spin a turbine.
If God had wanted us to have nearly unlimited clean energy, He would have placed a fusion reactor into the sky.
Submitted 1 week ago by mxeff@feddit.org to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://feddit.org/pictrs/image/15564f37-1d4c-4b44-b974-aa5b5e524716.png
Comments
A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 1 week ago
chunes@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Why do I have an overwhelming urge to climb that
Hedup@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You know if you’re a moth, you can just fly up there.
Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
You played too many Ubisoft games.
fascicle@leminal.space 1 week ago
Are you perhaps living in a place where it snows or something
nexguy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
T156@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Although they’re falling out of use these days, both because they’re not very environmentally friendly on account of being instant bird death-rays, and also because regular solar panels are cheap enough that it’s not worth it to make a big thermosolar plant.
untorquer@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Habitat destruction and pesticides are unfathomably worse for birds.
A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 1 week ago
Idk, my country just inaugurated a gigantic one of these.
Also, fotovoltaic pannels decay with time and have to be replaced, 15 years I think? Their manufacturing isn’t also the greenest thing on earth.
You build one of these, and you can run it for a long long time.
MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I wonder if it could be worth it to make one of those on other planets/the Moon one day. No birds to worry about there.
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Ahkshually, those tend to boils salt…which is later used to boil water.
Gladaed@feddit.org 1 week ago
That technology is a relic of the past. Solar panels are cheap and efficient now. Just use solar panels.
Tja@programming.dev 1 week ago
And much easier to operate and troubleshoot.
Silly@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
Fun Fact: Since 2006-2007 Uruguay’s power infrastructure has mostly relied on green energy, making up over 90% of their power infrastructure, also making them fully self sustaining power wise
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
In Canada (2023), renewables make up 66% and nuclear makes up 13% (79% together). That’s also pretty good.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
yeah some countries have that, like sweden and austria. the reason is because they’re very mountaineous areas, so there’s a lot of water power to harvest. in germany, which is really flat, that would have been impossible with water alone.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
only 3.4 M people, little industry
MrKoyun@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I dont know about this topic spessifically, but the excuses of “but they are rich”/“they have a small population”/“they’re a small country” when used against good stuff like this not existing somewhere else almost always seems to be that… Dumb excuses.
Their education system is awesome? Oh well they’re only a handful of people.
They have low car usage and walkable/bikeable cities? Oh well their land is just 40,000 km².
They have good social services? Well they’re a really rich country.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 1 week ago
fully self sustaining power wise
Damn, imagine that.
Talk about national security.
flamingleg@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
china already have a supercritical carbon dioxide system integrated into a functioning powergrid and operating commercially. The system exploits an exotic phase of co2 which expands to fill a volume like gas, but moves frictionlessly through tubes as a liquid. Their are concerns about lifespan because of how caustic the system is, but apparently some new materials are being trialled which negate this.
reabsorbthelight@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Link with description for those who are unaware of this like me
untorquer@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Heat pumps are the next evolution of the “it’s just steam again isn’t it?” meme.
Wander@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
They trying to make them with work with either memory alloys or with magnetic materials.
Same principle have something can go hot and cold based on some external control. But they will be done on solid materials not fluids.
Riverside@reddthat.com 1 week ago
This is mainly integrated AFAIK in industrial processes with high amounts of low entropy heat available (i.e. big volumes of not-that-hot liquids), and it allows for electric production from said heat with unprecedented efficiency. Cool shit
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 1 week ago
Now we just need solar boilers.
To boil water.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 1 week ago
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Driving by the one in California was always a trip. You could see the lines of sunlight being reflected from the mirrors in the air; it was so bright.
simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
turns out we sort of have that. only it does not boil water, but heats the air so liquid hydrocarbons come out of it www.research-collection.ethz.ch/server/…/content
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
I’m pretty sure we have actual solar water heaters too tbh
GraniteM@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 week ago
All that yet microwaves still leave my burrito frozen in the center.
GraniteM@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Gotta lower the power setting and increase the cook time. One minute at 100%? No! One and a half minutes at 80%!
chunes@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Still don’t understand how this could possibly generate energy.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 week ago
the power plant is in space and beams energy to the dish.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
It basically doesn’t work out.
Theoretically you could have 2500 square meters of solar arrays above the weather beaming the power down to a dish with only a 500 square meter footprint.
But you’d still have to deal with weather with some kind of a storage solution. And 2500 square meters of area in space seems more expensive to claim than just 500 square meters of area on land, in pretty much any scenario.
snoons@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
ACKSHUALLY we’re going to put special solar panels inside the reactor.
bstix@feddit.dk 1 week ago
And then use the solar panels to power a water boiler.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
D’oh!!!
Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
It is artificial sun basically, so…
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 1 week ago
Harness the power of the sun, but indoors!
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
I think thats the plan right? Steam turbines i mean…
Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
Yes, because electricity is just things spinning, and steam is the easiest way to make things spin.
Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Lerts work the people for electricity
NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
People are essentially internal combustion engines that burn food. Trying to capture that energy in ways that increases the load on us just causes us to need more calories. That’s counter productive as you could just burn said food itself to get energy, and agriculture is an energy and environmentally intensive industry to begin with.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The original idea was the machines using humans as a connected neural network. I don’t think it would change much about the plot of the movies if they’re used for energy or brain power, so it’s easy to change it for your own head canon at least 🙂
MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 1 week ago
On the other hand, clothes that would help me lose weight and charge my phone at the same time sound pretty cool. Just need to install Pokemon Go and I’ll be fit in no time.
lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 1 week ago
atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
All energy sources have trade offs.
Solar panels take a lot of space and shadows ecosystems reliant on sun light. Wind turbines kill birds and are noisy. Dams remove water sources from ecosystems and communities reliant on them. Fusion/nuclear/fission pose security risks. Oil/coal power puts CO2 and pollutants into the air.
The last one has global consequences and the first 4 only have local consequences that depend on circumstances.
trslim@pawb.social 1 week ago
The amount of birds that actually get killed by wind turbines has always been dubious at best. And having been next to a wind turbine, they really aren’t that noisy.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
In the early days of electricity, people complained they got headaches.
atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I’m not saying they are bad or not preferred. I’m just saying there are cases for fusion/fission sometimes.
nulluser@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Wind turbines kill birds and are noisy.
Technology Connections made a video specifically for you. youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM
tetris11@feddit.uk 1 week ago
Solar panels providing shade to grazing animals and crops is a mutual win, not the loss you make it out to be. Search for “the trampolining effect”
atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Thanks for sharing!
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Fields with solar panels (10-40% shadowing) actually have up to 20% more yield here, since summers get too hot for 1 - 2 months. Swiss, not far south.
atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
That’s my point. The social benefit of renewables are environmentally and temporally differentiating. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t invest in them! We definitely should, and likely more than we do. But all I’m saying if you were to calculate the environmental and societal long run costs, I believe there must be places and situations where fission/fusion is preferred sometimes.
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
Fusion(…) pose security risks
Wait, what kind? Doesn’t the reaction just fizzle out and become safely dormant if anything wrong happens?
atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I’m thinking more in terms of warfare
WantSomeFreeAtoms@thelemmy.club 1 week ago
I had to laugh at this one lol
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
How are solar panels made? Doesn’t it involve mining? Is it renewable?
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I watched a docu about one fusion startup in the US. They’re skipping the boiling water step and converting the energy directly to electricity.
I dont remember the mechanics of how though. But they reportedly are the closest to net positive.
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Can someone explain the solar panels bit at the bottom? Is it because the creator of the meme is advocating that as a cooler method of energy, given that it doesn’t use boiling water, or is it because the fusion reactor can utilise solar panels to harvest energy?
me_myself_and_I@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Guess god wanted us to get malaria because he created mosquitos? /s
PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Yes, Jimmy; you are.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
It is pretty funny that as advanced as our technology gets, we’re still basically just at the higher end of the “steam engine” phase.
drzoidberg@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I explained this to my oldest when he learned about the steam engine and how cool it was. When I told him it was the peak in power he was like “but we have nuclear and gas” and I told him that nuclear power is basically just a super charged steam engine, and nuclear rods boil water better than coal or gasoline, but it’s basically a steam engine. I went over how gasoline in cars was basically the same, but instead of steam, it used tiny explosions. We watched a few how it’s made type videos.
Dojan@pawb.social 1 week ago
I remember when this was explained to me and my little mind was blown. Your comment reminded me of that moment. Thank you.
olafurp@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Just as a side note that gas power plants capture two types of energy, both the expansion of the burned gas and the heat. This is why they’re now more popular for new builds than oil.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 week ago
We’re honestly almost past that at this point. Solar is devouring the world. Total global electricity production capacity is about 10 TW. China is currently producing 1 TW of panels annually. And the panels are still getting better and the prices are still dropping. We will quickly reach the point where the vast majority of global electricity production is solar, and everything else is a rounding error.
There just isn’t going to be any reason to build fusion plants. Maybe in the distant future colonies in the outer solar system and beyond will use them. But for anything inward of Mars, solar is the way to go. Solar+batteries is already, in 2026, the cheapest form of baseload power available. Material limitations are not a problem with modern battery chemistries. Daily swings in power demand will be solved by batteries. And we simply won’t have to worry about seasonal power swings. We’ll build enough solar panels to meet all our winter needs. We’ll build enough to power our cities during the coldest, cloudiest months. And then the rest of they year we’ll have super-abundant dirt cheap power.
The future is one of vast energy abundance. We’re going to find all sorts of ways to use energy that we’ve never even dreamed of before - mostly to take advantage of the abundance of dirt cheap energy we’ll have during all but the coldest months.
The days the steam engine are numbered. With the exception of remote polar outposts, everything’s going solar. It’s simply the cheapest most abundant form of energy we’ve ever discovered. Nothing can match it.
call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
I still think nuclear (probably fission rather than fusion) has a place, at least in terms of land usage. It’s just obscenely efficient in terms of energy per resource investment. It requires many square miles and hundreds of tons of materials to match the output of a single reactor.
Iceblade02@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Not really. Unless there are some breakthroughs in technology that significantly lower capex & opex for grid scale energy storage, they’ll be sticking around for a long time.
There is an asterisk on the 1TW number, and that asterisk is capacity factor. In practice it means that depending on the time of year and location, the effective output of your solar panel will be between 0-40% of label capacity .
In my country for instance, you can expect 0-2% output from a panel in the winter time, which also happens to coincide with the peak demands (heating). Luckily, our politicians had some foresight in the 70s & 80s and built lots of hydro and nuclear power, which has been the backbone of our grid ever since (despite attempts to dismantle it).
mech@feddit.org 1 week ago
I just hope the timeline you describe can outpace the timeline racing towards neo-feudalism, world war 3, global pandemics and heat waves triggering a new migration period.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Wow. Isn’t it amazing that the majority of human history operated under renewable energy?
arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
While I agree that this is all technological possible, I just have a sinking feeling capitalism will find a way to ruin this. Probably involving the profit incentives for power companies
call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Turns out heat engines are like… pretty good at turning arbitrary energy sources into useful work.
Abundance114@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Turns out there is a method of fusion power that doesn’t boil water. It generates massive electromagnetic fields that creates electricity.
Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Its actually more like if a steam engine and a waterwheel had a baby, a turbine