I actually don’t know why people get so hung up on this. When you are making energy it’s easiest to make heat, and boiling water through a turbine is a really efficient way to turn heat into motion and we’re really good at doing it and turning motion into electricity. The fact that multiple ways of making heat exist is not surprising, the fact that different methods of making heat use the same, most efficient, well understood method for turning heat into electricity is even less surprising.
If we develop a more efficient way to turn heat into electricity it won’t be “a new way to make energy” it will be “a new more efficient heat engine”
We also have developed solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-electric dams as well as tidal/wave energy devices in the intervening years - so adding another method to boil water just feels “outdated”.
I’m not trying to cast judgement myself, just trying to explain that it feels like it’s just “vibes based”.
Take a look at a modern supercritical steam turbine, this thing can run on 600C steam. there’s nothing archaic about it (it can be more efficient as a part of combined cycle)
I had an idea for a dumb Star Trek meme, based on the episode where they explain how Romulan warp drives work, but extrapolating that to “it boils water and spins a turbine”. Maybe one of the Star Trek memers can take this and run with it?
I actually don’t know why people get so hung up on this. When you are making energy it’s easiest to make heat, and boiling water through a turbine is a really efficient way to turn heat into motion and we’re really good at doing it and turning motion into electricity. The fact that multiple ways of making heat exist is not surprising, the fact that different methods of making heat use the same, most efficient, well understood method for turning heat into electricity is even less surprising.
If we develop a more efficient way to turn heat into electricity it won’t be “a new way to make energy” it will be “a new more efficient heat engine”
Because it feels archaic and inefficient, maybe?
We also have developed solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-electric dams as well as tidal/wave energy devices in the intervening years - so adding another method to boil water just feels “outdated”.
I’m not trying to cast judgement myself, just trying to explain that it feels like it’s just “vibes based”.
Take a look at a modern supercritical steam turbine, this thing can run on 600C steam. there’s nothing archaic about it (it can be more efficient as a part of combined cycle)
Hydropower and windmills are older than steam
I had an idea for a dumb Star Trek meme, based on the episode where they explain how Romulan warp drives work, but extrapolating that to “it boils water and spins a turbine”. Maybe one of the Star Trek memers can take this and run with it?