It’s been more than 200 years since the widespread implementation of the steam engine.
Why is this still the most prevalent means of producing electricity? With things like fusion reactors, why is it so hard to convert the thermal energy into electrical energy?
In: 787
If you can come up with a better and cheaper option that water, then do name it.
The reason we use water, and by the looks of it are planning to get power from fusion power with turning water in to steam is that it is so easy.
Here is the thing. Energy is not just electricity. If I lift a pint to the air I add potential energy to it. If I let go of it it drops to the ground, but no electricity is made.
Steam is a really good way of taking thermal energy, and turning that in to kinetic energy thanks to steam expanding in volume and that expansion used to turn a generator.
The thing is that just adding heat to something doesn’t make electricity. You need a method to change one energy to another via a medium.
Electricity is made by pushing forcing electrons to move, and this in turns causes a chain reaction in the conductor where electrons travel through it and potential goes to the opposite direction.
With solar panels, it is the radiation from sun that basically “kicks” the electron across a insulator so it has to travel through the whole circuit. While generators move or move through magnetic fields which then forces the electrons to move, meaning that outside of the generator they are being pulled on one end and out from the other.
There is no reason that we must use water. You can use methane, or other low boiling point substances. These been suggested as alternative means of extracting energy from small thermal gradients like between ocean surface and underwater. The thing is that… We go LOTS of water on this planet.
Latest Answers