Ugga is confused. Ugga needs help. Why basically only turbines?
* Nuclear power. Turbines.
* Water power (waterfall, dams and so on). Turbines.
* Wind power. Turbine (This one i accept).
* Wave power. Turbines.
* Coal power. Turbines.
The only one i can think of that doesnt use turbines is solar power. Have we not in our 250+ years of harnessing energy come up with a way of getting said power without using turbines except for solar power? Or is it just that, its our most effective way?
How do we extract energy from our fusion trial chambers? Is it just the heat being funneled to a watertank with a turbine?
RTGs in satellites uses thermocouple. Im guessing solar works in a similar way?
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Converting energy between different forms rarely is as simple as being able to covert it directly from its natural state to how we want it without intermediate steps. One of the few large-scale ways we’ve discovered to transform any type of energy into electrical energy is using kinetic energy to move magnets around wires, which generates electricity. From there, we need to figure out how to get the energy we have into kinetic energy. For coal as an example, burning it converts its chemical potential energy into light and heat. The light isn’t to useful for us, but basic physics tells us hot things expand and rise, and that’s kinetic energy. Then, we just need to figure out how best to use the motion of something being heated to move those magnets, and in most cases the best solution we’ve come up with is using steam to spin a turbine. Most other forms of energy production boil down the same wat, whether the energy is already kinetic (like naturally moving water), or needs to be converted to heat first (like nuclear decay).
AC electricity is a sine wave. That comes from moving a magnetic field in a circle. The easiest way to do that is a turbine. It’s direct generation.
Solar modules generate DC electricity. They use electronics to match the AC sine wave of the grid.
Turbines are the simplest way to generate electricity that plays nicely with the infrastructure and appliances we all have.
> How do we extract energy from our fusion trial chambers?
We don’t. So far no fusion project is even attempting to make any use of the energy produced in the reaction, it is just dissipated as heat. We have yet to acheive a self-sustaining fusion reaction, let alone produce any excess power to do something useful.
Most fusion power proposals would use the produced heat to drive a turbine just like today’s power plants, but there is a more unconventional design being developed by a company called Helion Energy. Their reactor would operate in cycles a bit like a piston engine, compressing the plasma, igniting the fusion reaction, then extracting electrical energy directly from the expanding plasma using the same magnets used to compress it. But this company also has yet to demonstrate net energy production and while they are making bold claims, it remains to be seen if their system will work.
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