this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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Every damn power plant is a glorified steam engine
Except solar. And wind. And hydro.
Some solar is also boiling water
And some of it is boiling salt!
Which then boils water, of course.
But some of it is electrons from photonic impact, no water involved! In the process of energy generation anyway. Statistically and perhaps somewhat ironically, the electrons from that photonic impact may well be used to boil water regardless... Humans just fucking love boiling water.
Isn't salt like the main bees knees these days?
I don't know, but the Ivanpah solar power station near Primm NV, which is a set of three molten salt towers is reportedly getting decommissioned, removed, and replaced with PV panels. Word is PV technology had improved in efficiency and stopped in cost enough that the whole molten salt thing is no longer economically viable, at least in comparison.
Oh, absolutely. It's very cool technology! Molten salt is corrosive as fuck, but that just kinda makes molten salt solar towers even more awesome.
I'm assuming ceramics to the rescue?
:D
Something all the way down something
And zapping birds!
They did fix that pretty quickly, but what a classic mad scientist blunder that would turn a well meaning researcher into a villain in any action hero film.
And some fusion is direct to current in coils. The z-pinch style approaches mainly.
that's why IMHO it's more important to classify the core coupling mechanism (e.g. photoelectric effect, electromagnetic effect) instead of classifying the total energy in -> energy out types.
Expect for solar, it's all just flowy stuff through spinny stuff: wind, water, steam. GRAAAAAAAAAA
Good ol' mill.
Spinny stuff is basically the universe on all scales, so it makes sense. And that's fucking cool, IMO.
Solar is very tiny flowy stuff through very tiny spinny stuff
wind is just the effects of premade steam
Hydro also uses steam
In liquid form?
Condensed steam.
It's still the same turbine shit
It’s all turbines, but quite dissimilar turbines.
and fuel cells
And waves/tidal, but now we're getting into the really niche types.
i knew i was forgetting something
I dunno if "power plant" quite fits for solar and wind. Definitely for Hydro, though.
"Power Plant" won't be a fitting term until we can generate electricity (at a viable scale) from chloroplasts.
And wouldn't that just be solar with extra steps?
fun fact: chloroplasts generate an electric potential across the cell membrane during photosynthesis. essentially, they have membrane proteins in their chloroplast membranes that push electrons from one side of the membrane to the other side whenever a photon hits the protein. It's essentially a natural photovoltaic cell.
That electric potential is then used to create ATP in nature, while we just directly extract the electrical power through cables.
Even better if you can use it to power a humanoid robot for a real world plant golem.
Why not?
The First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy Cannot Be Created or Destroyed
Fossil fuel power plants merely convert chemical energy into another type.
Just that "power plant" I think most people associate with large enclosed facilities that house power generating equipment, which doesn't quite describe wind and solar farms. Hence that most people refer to them as "farms".
We’re living in a steampunk world after all
I'm a steampunk girl
In a steampunk world
It's not a big big thing if you steam me
I'm going to be this person I guess, but the defining trait of steampunk isn't the use of steam alone. It's that energy is transfered by delivering steam to where it's used, rather than using it in-place to crested electricity. This means that steampunk machines operate off of some kind of kinetic energy, rather than electrical energy.
Basically, computers (and everything else) are spinning gears, not silicon.
Aaackually...
That was a really cool explanation, thank you!
Readily available, low boiling point, non corrosive (relatively), and ecologically safe. What more do you want?
Also a ridiculously high heat capacity. It does make sense.
Molten salt. Lower pressure, higher efficiency, and I believe less reactive in the event of an uh-oh.
The molten salt is used as the first step. It then makes steam through a heat exchanger. Molten salt is safer next to the actual reactor because water is not a good coolant in case of emergency.
Oh, I was just joking around. What my water system is missing is molten salt.
Although for the sake of preposterousness, I'm going to suggest we use the molten salt to turn a giant water wheel.
Hydro isn't. Nor is solar photo voltaic, wind, or tidal, but yeah, nearly everything else is. In a combined-cycle natural gas or diesel plant half of the power generated isn't steam power, but the other half is.
Hydro is liquid steam
aah, but it didn't say steam, it said boiling water.
smaller gas generators based on internal combustion engines don't boil water though, right?
boiling just makes the water move, hydro just cheats
Electromagnetic induction.
Basically electric motor in reverse...instead of electricity powering the motor, the motor powers electricity.
But the trick is in "what spins the motor". In the case if ICE generators, it's usually a pulley off the crankshaft.
Or it could be moving water.
Molten ice.
for ccgt it's more like 2/3 for gas turbine, 1/3 for steam turbine split, even more uneven for diesel/steam because diesel exhaust is much colder
I watched a video a while ago about a new approach to fusion which uses induction iirc https://youtu.be/uRaQLZaaHWo