this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Solar panel projects, which many have outstripped this and other projects in power limitations, do not boil water to generate electricity.
And wind turbines, and hydroelectric plants.
But all but solar cells are pretty much turbines all the way down
Hydroelectric power stations still rely on steam, it's just in another part of the cycle.
What? Hydroelectric power stations use gravity and the falling or flowing water makes the turbines turn. No steam.
Thermal plants (nuclear, coal, gas), including solar thermal plants, use steam.
He means water vapour, ie the rain cycle.
That's not steam, though.
I didn't say it was a good quip
Would not like to be the technician working on the hydrostation where part of the rain cycle is steam
I reckon some of the water vapour in the atmosphere will have once been steam rising and cooling. But probably not very much, so it's fair to say hydroelectric generation may happen to use some water that was once steam, but I don't think they can be said to rely on steam.
I think the thing that all dynamo based based electricity generators depend on in common is probably the pressure difference.
Yeah, I tried to make a joke about where the rain forms from steam and not regular evaporation. Imagine working in an environment where it's as a hot sauna all the time
The southern US 😖
Another couple decades of oil wars and we’ll get there.
Ooooooooh.
They use steam condensed in a pressurized environment
And to be fair, those none steam sources, i.e. hydro, wind and solar are all just solar basically.