▲ 1127 ▼ If God had wanted us to have nearly unlimited clean energy, He would have placed a fusion reactor into the sky. (europe.pub) submitted 8 months ago by mxeff@feddit.org to c/science_memes@mander.xyz 181 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 21 points 8 months ago (7 children) Now we just need solar boilers. To boil water. permalink fedilink source hideshow 7 child comments replies: [–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 8 months ago (4 children) turns out we sort of have that. only it does not boil water, but heats the air so liquid hydrocarbons come out of it https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/server/api/core/bitstreams/186f37f3-be00-415e-8bbb-439b66ee2b75/content permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago (3 children) I'm pretty sure we have actual solar water heaters too tbh permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) we do. they are about the size of a solar panel, look similar and are on some roofs of houses in my area. the ones i'm refering to are not for boiling water, just for preheating so need less energy when it goes back into the [ger: heizungskreislauf]. all the ones i know are older then the current PV panel boom. fun fact, there are even concepts (and implentation, but i can't find it) for vacuum glas tubes that have a parabolic mirror around a black painted copper pipe, which should be able to generate ~400 °C "process heat". but they are not wide spread, cause PV is so much cheaper now permalink fedilink source parent load more comments (2 replies) load more comments (2 replies) load more comments (4 replies)
[–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 8 months ago (4 children) turns out we sort of have that. only it does not boil water, but heats the air so liquid hydrocarbons come out of it https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/server/api/core/bitstreams/186f37f3-be00-415e-8bbb-439b66ee2b75/content permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago (3 children) I'm pretty sure we have actual solar water heaters too tbh permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) we do. they are about the size of a solar panel, look similar and are on some roofs of houses in my area. the ones i'm refering to are not for boiling water, just for preheating so need less energy when it goes back into the [ger: heizungskreislauf]. all the ones i know are older then the current PV panel boom. fun fact, there are even concepts (and implentation, but i can't find it) for vacuum glas tubes that have a parabolic mirror around a black painted copper pipe, which should be able to generate ~400 °C "process heat". but they are not wide spread, cause PV is so much cheaper now permalink fedilink source parent load more comments (2 replies) load more comments (2 replies)
[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago (3 children) I'm pretty sure we have actual solar water heaters too tbh permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) we do. they are about the size of a solar panel, look similar and are on some roofs of houses in my area. the ones i'm refering to are not for boiling water, just for preheating so need less energy when it goes back into the [ger: heizungskreislauf]. all the ones i know are older then the current PV panel boom. fun fact, there are even concepts (and implentation, but i can't find it) for vacuum glas tubes that have a parabolic mirror around a black painted copper pipe, which should be able to generate ~400 °C "process heat". but they are not wide spread, cause PV is so much cheaper now permalink fedilink source parent load more comments (2 replies)
[–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) we do. they are about the size of a solar panel, look similar and are on some roofs of houses in my area. the ones i'm refering to are not for boiling water, just for preheating so need less energy when it goes back into the [ger: heizungskreislauf]. all the ones i know are older then the current PV panel boom. fun fact, there are even concepts (and implentation, but i can't find it) for vacuum glas tubes that have a parabolic mirror around a black painted copper pipe, which should be able to generate ~400 °C "process heat". but they are not wide spread, cause PV is so much cheaper now permalink fedilink source parent