this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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/uj Steam is just an intermediary form for almost all these tho (except maybe geothermal? not sure), not the real source.
Steam just makes sense as a fluid for heat engines, thermal power plants are mostly steam, except when gas turbines are involved, but even then there's most of the time steam bottoming cycle. (gas turbine burns something, then exhaust is hot enough to power steam cycle) Unless thermal power plant is small, then it's more likely to be diesel engine (up to few MW). Only when it's photovoltaics, or hydropower, or wind farm (or tidal powerplant, or some other weird ones) there's no place for steam to be involved (solar thermal plants sometimes use steam cycle). Geothermal powerplants use steam if source is hot enough, otherwise it's something more volatile in organic Rankine cycle
Hydroelectric is just liquid steam, and wind is just cold, thin steam.
I'm referring to the root energy source, rather than how it's transferred.
Then it's just heat transfer medium for most of geothermal powerplants too, because from what i understand, most of the time condensed water is recycled (and source of energy is just "hot rocks" anyway)
then if you look at the bigger picture, all that energy can be traced back to either sun, nuclear fission (in reactors) or nuclear decay/primordial heat (geothermal)
"Root" energy source really just depends on where you draw boundaries of thermodynamic system in question
Geothermal power still uses steam to generate electricity. It's steams all the way down.
Steam isn't the energy source tho, just a transfer mechanism.
Same for all the others like coal and nuclear though. So that's a dumb distinction to try to make.
Steam is always just a transfer mechanism if it's part of the power generation
Then why focus on steam specifically, why not other required intermediaries, like turbines, the storage mechanism.
The main meaningful distinction in energy generation is the root sources of the energy, nuclear, wind, hydro, etc. All of those share similar conversion methods and intermediary forms, but have different sources.
Because it's a funny fucking meme my dude.
Hence the meme. Because almost everything uses steam.
Any other jokes you want to break down for no reason?
Solar is an exception I think
True, but there are also solar steam systems, using a parabolic mirror to focus the sun on a steam drum.
Arguably these are even greener than photovoltaics, since they don't require the same kinds of materials to make (mostly just steel) and last longer than photovoltaics are supposed to. They use a fair bit of water, but you probably aren't building them in places where water is at a premium.
I mean the main steam cycle solar plants are built in dry sunny hot regions, not exactly a great source of water, but probably not completely void of it either.
Solar, wind, and hydro don't use steam. (Well, hydro can bypass the steam part. It depends)
Hydroelectric is just liquid steam, and wind is just cold, thin steam.
and diodes