this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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Lemmy Shitpost

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[–] snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 31 minutes ago

Can't wait for fusion and magnetic hydrogen.

[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

What's the original comic?

[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I actually don't know why people get so hung up on this. When you are making energy it's easiest to make heat, and boiling water through a turbine is a really efficient way to turn heat into motion and we're really good at doing it and turning motion into electricity. The fact that multiple ways of making heat exist is not surprising, the fact that different methods of making heat use the same, most efficient, well understood method for turning heat into electricity is even less surprising.

If we develop a more efficient way to turn heat into electricity it won't be "a new way to make energy" it will be "a new more efficient heat engine"

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Because it feels archaic and inefficient, maybe?

We also have developed solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-electric dams as well as tidal/wave energy devices in the intervening years - so adding another method to boil water just feels “outdated”.

I’m not trying to cast judgement myself, just trying to explain that it feels like it’s just “vibes based”.

[–] swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 hours ago

I had an idea for a dumb Star Trek meme, based on the episode where they explain how Romulan warp drives work, but extrapolating that to "it boils water and spins a turbine". Maybe one of the Star Trek memers can take this and run with it?

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 37 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Nuclear power is just steampunk with magic rocks.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 17 points 11 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Too spicy for Ukraine, circa 1986.

3.6M Scoville. Not great, not terrible

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

So spicy they make everything around them spicy.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 62 points 15 hours ago (5 children)

The idea .....

Send water on a 150 million kilometer pipeline to the sun to super heat it ... then pipe the steam back to power a turbine

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What if the pipeline already existed... But it was made of light

[–] JoShmoe@ani.social 6 points 9 hours ago

Shut up science

[–] nightwatch_admin@lemmy.world 35 points 15 hours ago (2 children)
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

Dyson Straw.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 41 points 15 hours ago (2 children)
[–] diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

There could be a whole industry of Dyson Dudes that run back and forth with the tubes

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 11 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know why you made me laugh so much, thanks for that post.

I think it's because it turns the concept into something so low tech and banal

[–] lime@feddit.nu 11 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

right? like a potato gun for space

[–] BonsaiBoo@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You just described every rocket ever made by man.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 3 points 12 hours ago

potato guns are not typically self-propelled. i'm thinking more like HARP

[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

The pipe can double as a space elevator

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 15 hours ago

Wouldn't even need to run it out that far and we don't have the material science to handle temperatures near the sun.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 hours ago

"I have an idea for a comic!"

"Is it you getting angry and sulking on the couch?"

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 25 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

I'm an EE by schooling and I've worked in both gas turbine and wind power. Photovoltaics blow my fucking mind. Everything else is just spinning magnets to extract power. PVs are insanely cool

[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 2 points 3 hours ago

Personally, I like the mirror plants that use the suns energy to superheat salt.

And then use that to boil water. /s

For real, what China is doing with PVs is pretty fucking cool.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Your name makes me think you're about to lather your own naked body in vasoline, and hide inside the couch.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 hours ago

I'm known to lather a bit, as a treat.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Take a look at reverse electro-dialysis.

It's pushing thermal energy into electricity directly by the force of entropy.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's a super rad tech! A bit pricey but a neat renewable that almost generates opposite to solar in a way, in that if it's raining you're getting some energy in the form of fresh water

Can you ELI10 an intuitive explanation on why the salinity gradient provides energy? It doesn't make intuitive sense to me and never has. Like why is fresh water mixing with salt water energy positive?

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

why the salinity gradient provides energy?

It doesn't. It's the thermal energy that is converted to electricity.

The salinity gradient provides an entropy dump. The dialysis machine is built in a way that the only possible way for that entropy to increase is by generating some electricity.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] marcos@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Entropy is maximized by turning heat into electricity, so electricity appears on the device, as it gets cooler (by a tiny amount).

EDIT: I just noticed that you may be asking about the "reverse electro-dialysis" part :)

It's a process where fresh and salty water enter a machine, and they get mixed while generating electricity. It's the reverse of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodialysis

That runs on the same conceptual machine.

(And oh, looks like it's written together.)

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 19 points 15 hours ago (3 children)
[–] Klox@lemmy.world 16 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Isn’t that was unchecked capitalism is already doing?

[–] danekrae@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 17 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

No, wind is spinning magnets. Everything except photovoltaics and fuel cells is spinning magnets. (Everything with boiling water is also spinning magnets)

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

There's peltier devices, too, which use heat traveling via different metals and maybe some sort of sorcery to generate a voltage.

Also teslacoils use a different mechanism (friction I believe), though that's a static voltage.

In theory, you could translate a magnet through a coil instead of just rotating it to produce a current. Lol spinning a ring magnet through a rounded coil could be a different way of using spinning magnets (assuming it isn't already done).

[–] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 2 points 12 hours ago

And wise-ass got outwiseassed. Chapeau

PS: you forgot to mention piezoelectricity

[–] bumblefumble@mander.xyz 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You could always spin some wire and let the magnets stay still if you wanna be different.

[–] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 2 points 12 hours ago

Well… if a wire moves in a magnetic field, a current is induced. If a current runs through a wire, it generates an electromagnetic field.

So in this case: spinning wire = spinning magnet

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[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 7 points 15 hours ago

It's also due to water being boiled. Just in a different, many steps removed manner.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 8 points 13 hours ago
[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The new supercritical CO2 generators are pretty cool. Pretty much the same thing but no water!

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

Those systems are interesting, but also nightmares to build and maintain.

Supercritical co2 is a powerful solvent and can corrode most metals.this problem is worse when you increase the temperature.

Material scientists are working on it, but so far, the few test systems that have been built can't quite live up to the hype.

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 7 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Well when you invent a new way to convert rotational energy into multi-phase AC please let us all know

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[–] Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Boil water and spin magnets

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