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?
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I believe it has something to do with the phase changes of the working fluid. And water, despite being a common substance, has some unique properties in that regard. So if you use both steam generation and condensation, it offers surprisingly good efficiency as far as heat engines go. An internal combustion engine like that on a car might be something under 25% efficiency at best, but steam turbines with the right setup approach the 70% to 80% range. That’s not bad at all for turning heat from differential temperatures into kinetic energy stored in some large rotating mass. (Which then of course is generally used to drive some generator.)
Maybe there are better explanations than that (somebody could whip out a Mollier diagram and get into enthalpy and all that), but that’s my take on it.
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