this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Yeah about that.
Those are termosolar powerplant, they use the sun to boil water and spin a turbine.
Why do I have an overwhelming urge to climb that
You know if you're a moth, you can just fly up there.
No brother!
BRotHeR i cRaVe foR tHe ForBiDDen liGhT
You played too many Ubisoft games.
Are you perhaps living in a place where it snows or something
Sam McGee just wants to do free climbing
Better solar power extractor.
If you think about it coal fired power plants are also solar powered 🤔
True, just that an intermediate step(of many steps) is to continually destroy the atmosphere.
It's not like we need it to breath anyways. We'll just pay corporations for oxygen masks and "Atmo-tanks" to breath. We have commodify everything because Capitalism requires it.
C'mon Cohegan, give dees peepul aihhhhhh
Fine to think of it, it's also renewable!
AFAIR you can't get new coal/oil because in the meantime there are fungi in the ground that would process the dead plants/alge/whatever was pressed to make the hydrocarbons. but i can't find the source of that info, so grain of salt
Most coal comes from the carbonipherous period, a period in which plants evolved wood but ~~microbes~~ funghi (shutout to Lyrl's below comment) still hadn't evolved wood-eating.
You can get new coal in marshes because I think the process to eat wood requires oxygen, and flooded areas don't allow for wood to decompose totally. That's why they can pull out wooden ships from 500 years ago from the bottom of the ocean in relatively good condition!
That it took 400 million years for one fungus to evolve wood eating is wild to me. And no other microbe has ever evolved that ability: my understanding is all wood decay fungal species today evolved from one shared ancester.
You're likely right, my background is physics, I'll quote you on the comment above!
I wasn't intending my comment as a correction - microbe is a more general term than bacteria, and most fungi are indeed microbes - but just saw an opportunity to add on what I think is a cool fact. Thanks for bringing up the carboniferous period!
Stupid science and its "biology" ane "evolutionary timelines" always trying to ruin my fun...
Are you referring to lignen developing before there was a bilogical process to break it down?
Only that sun fell on plants millions of years ago. We really don't want that million year old carbon dioxide in the atmosphere alongside the recent stuff
Very true, the conclusion I'm drawing is that solar power is actively harming the environment and causing climate change. No new solar!
do you not know how those work?
the sun shines on the side angled upwards and heats it up. everybody knows hot air rises, so this raises the blade, creating the spinning motion.
it's basic, really. third grade stuff.
I really love how it's almost that simple.
the sun shines on the ~~side angled upwards~~ planet and heats it up. everybody knows hot air rises, ~~so this raises~~ creating winds that drive the blade, creating the spinning motion.
Omg every body knows wind is created when god sighs at the collective sin of the world.
Some people so dumb.
the great orc father mungnog's farts propel the wind, all know this.
I declare holy war!
I declare bankruptcy!
The sun heats the planet unevenly, this causes wind. Wind is solar
Its even more metal they heat salt that heats water to spin the turbine. This keeps the power generation well after sun down.
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.
Habitat destruction, air pollution, and pesticides are unfathomably worse for birds.
And I'm not sure how much alive things are in the Atacama (except when there is a blooming desert fenomenon.
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.
This number gets lower every time I see it.
First, manufacturers typically guarantee their panels for 25 to 30 years.
Second, while we can extrapolate from existing data and perform accelerated aging tests, we're actually not completely sure how long PV panels last in the real world because the oldest ones from 1987 are still going.
much longer: https://www.slashgear.com/1989112/solar-panel-lifespan-longer-new-study/
The usual warranty period is 20 years generating 80% of the nameplate generating Watts
They keep generating reasonable amounts of power 50 or 100 years later, though they tend to get overtaken by new technology in 10 to 20 years, and since they pay for themselves in about 4 years in my area they get replaced while still working well
I think we export our obsolete panels to developing nations
Lies! Well the thermal plant is also fine but photovoltaics are really, really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM
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.
Solar panels are still cheaper and easier. Most spaceships and probes rely on them.
Not a lot of atmosphere on the moon.
Transmitting heat across distances in effectively a vacuum doesn't work too well.
Just look a the size of the radiators the ISS has to have, and they're not even sending heat anywhere in particular, that's just getting it off station
You're getting thermal radiation and convection confused. The ISS has giant radiators because it's a right pain in the ass to turn heat into thermal radiation, and it cannot rely on convection to cool things like you can here on earth. Turning thermal radiation into heat on the other hand is pretty trivial. Just don't reflect it and it'll turn into heat. These things aren't transporting heat across distances. They are transporting thermal radiation across distances. That works as well in a vacuum -- if not better -- as it does on earth.
If thermal radiation doesn't work in a vacuum, how is the sun heating anything up?
I stand corrected
The mirrors on Earth don't transfer the energy using the air between the mirror and the collector, they just bounce the spicy photons which can travel even better in a vacuum.
Or in the Atacama, the Desertiest desert on earth!
Where the gigantic Cerro Dominador Termosolar Power Plant opened a couple years ago.
Ahkshually, those tend to boil salt...which is later used to boil water.
That technology is a relic of the past. Solar panels are cheap and efficient now. Just use solar panels.
And much easier to operate and troubleshoot.
That's what they want you to think. I bet it also powers a secret orbital space laser. I should know, a man with a theoretical degree in physics told me.