It is well known that “dyson spheres” are pure science fiction without realistic economics or any feasible implementation possibility. The reason is because there is not enough water to boil all that energy into usable electricity.
There is a reason why Dyson spheres are science fiction. That reason is not “there’s not enough water to boil”. If we were to somehow have the technological capacity to build a Dyson sphere it would most likely use some direct light to energy solution, something like photovoltaics. Or if it did need to go light -> heat -> electricity it wouldn’t be using water, it would be using noble gases.
You forget that we would also somehow need to be able to produce more metal that our solar system holds.
You can boil other things, like NaK. Wait, I need to look up boiling NaK now
Photovoltaics have entered the chat.
Wind turbines have spun into the chat
Wind turbines are just what the steam in the nuclear reactor turbines do without all the extra steps.
Spinning shit is just really good at doing stuff.
That’s the rub, isn’t it? We can’t get a stream of ionized protons to spin anything. Can’t make a propeller out of the nuclei of other atoms…
That’s just solar with extra steps
Not man made steps though.
Otherwise everything is just fusion, with extra steps.
Hydroelectric also doesn’t boil the water; the water itself turns things.
Even when you’re boiling it, the water vapor is turning something. All energy production is making water turn things, photovoltaics, or rounding errors
It’s also an awful idea, destroys ecosystems
Changes ecosystems. Destroys some, creates others.
We have been the steampunk universe all along!
Without all the gears and victorian style sadly
we’ve had this discussion so many times, let’s have it one more time, shall we?
electricity is the most valuable form of energy. every time you want to convert energy A into energy B, you almost always do it via electricity energy as an intermediary step.
for example, if you want to convert the potential energy of water into light energy, you go: water potential energy -> turbine rotary energy -> electric energy -> light.
so, the question is, how can electric energy be converted from/to other types of energy? important types:
- electrochemical (direct reduction, batteries, galvanic cell)
- electromechanical (motor, generator)
- photoelectric (solar panel, LED)
there are some others that i’m still thinking about how to categorize (peltier effect / seebeck effect).
these are represented by major 4 integrated circuit types:
- capacitor / supercapacitor represents battery
- coil represents motor / generator (electromagnetic coupling)
- diode represents photoelectrics
- transistor for switching
the first 2 are “linear” (described by linear theory). the last 2 are semiconductor materials.
While I agree that electricity is on top of the power food chain its nothing but steam all the way down below it.
Far down you have chains and axles and ropes
Cump dum.
A reverse kettle *
This is the most efficient way when you’re burning a fuel, any fuel, always. Otherwise the machine wouldn’t capture the waste heat.
Gasoline engines capture only 25-40% of the the chemical energy in their fuel.
Well, there’s always supercritical CO2 for getting a bit more spin for your heat.
It’s got a pretty fabulous efficiency, pretty fabulous cost too.
You also have Stirling generator. No water needed, just heat. But they’re more expensive and less efficient, so not used for commercial applications.
The main commercial application of stirling engines is the sale of fancy little brass alcohol powered sterling engines.
And to keep me amused machining all the parts needed to make one.
Or a Peltier element if you want to be fancy
they use it this way in submarines.
cunk & water 😋
Einstein would like to have a word with his Nobel prize winning discovery.
Or sometimes about melting salt
Hmm, looks like it is also about boiling water
Sometimes even solar is about boiling water
Power tower?
Reminds me of a Frank Zappa song 😁
Hey there people I’m Bobby Brown!
You know, it takes 1000 Millie Bobby Brown to make just one whole Bobby Brown.
Hi Bobby! How long can you take on the Tower of Power?
I can take an hour on the tower of power, long as I gets a little golden shower!
Not wrong though.
Certainly the development of fusion reactors will be the beginning of something new.
fusion
if we ever overcome the problems of getting sustainable fusion, which is not likely anytime soon.
Once we can make those we can boil the SHIT out of water!
And here I was hoping that we could boil the HELL out of water.
No large scale holy water production in sight still?
