What is worst is that if we look deeper, we find out that everything is just turning the mill
The only advance would be solar that was capable of not using a mill that have to turn… Everything else? Just a fucking mill
New clean energy comes out. *look inside* It’s just boiling water again…
Submitted 2 weeks ago by cannedtuna@lemmy.world to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9533eab0-476d-422b-a847-0517c06e5b77.png
Comments
Tiempo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Zorque@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We rotate around the sun, though
Tiempo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Fucking damn it!
emmy5482@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
We do, but that isn’t a necessary component… Anyways, good joke.
Photonic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Looks like the Dutchies were right in the first place
Gonzako@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nah, the dutchies also invented the stock market.
thevoidzero@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Solar and batteries (chemical). If we could harness lightening then that’s come without mechanical energy as well. There’s biological energy as well, we don’t have a way to extract it directly as electricity but it exists
Mechanical and heat is just the most common way to get electricity for us at the moment.
isekaihero@ani.social 2 weeks ago
Conan’s wheel of pain
zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Fun fact time oklo is the only known instance of a naturally occurring fission reaction.
flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Wow, that’s mental
jaygray91@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
An amazing TIL. Thanks!
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Face it, all power is water, all stories are Hamlet, all food is grass, and all music is Pachelbel’s Canon. Reality’s budget is running out and it’s having to reuse assets.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d love to see someone try to explain how As You Like It is Hamlet
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Both explore how characters must mask their true identities to survive a corrupt patriarchal system managed by a villainous uncle?
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Modern society as asset flip
Sheldan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I love the description of PV to be basically ‘outsourced fusion’
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Uranium is clean?
chaogomu@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Extremely.
Even adding in construction and mining, it has the lowest carbon per KWh out of any option. Even Hydro comes out worse, due to the years of carbon and methane emissions from the decaying plant matter at the bottom of the newly formed lake.
Wind and solar are down there, but the mining costs and the low output per unit tend to bump the numbers.
Noted, that’s just the carbon released. There are other metrics, and nuclear tends to meet most all of them because it’s very heavily regulated.
Zagorath@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
This page’s “Life cycle CO2 equivalent (including albedo effect)” page says Nuclear is just a hair worse than onshore wind in the median case, significantly worse than both on- and offshore wind in the worst case (worst for both types), and slightly better in the best case. In best case, hydro actually beats nuclear.
Also, TIL tidal power isn’t commercially in use. I swear we were learning about it in school 20 years ago, and were not even told then that it wasn’t viable.
Including the effects of albedo seems rather straightforward and worth doing. Of course it neglects some more complicated factors, like opportunity cost of staying on fossil fuels in the meantime for the 20+ years it takes to build nuclear. A convenient part of the reason that the biggest proponents of nuclear tend to be those politicians and special interests who also support fossil fuels.
ricdeh@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s one hell of a claim. In fact such an outrageously bold one that you shouldn’t be able to post a comment like that without citing a reputable source.
fullsquare@awful.systems 2 weeks ago
Coal ash (from some mines) contains so much uranium that if emissions like this were detected near NPP all hell would break loose, but nobody cares. Energy content of that uranium can be higher than what was released during coal combustion
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Humanity’s relationship with producing energy continually blows my mind, and it’s one of the main things that makes me think that maybe we do live in a simulation.
We discovered fossil fuel energy, which was fine for a bit to kick off the industrial revolution, but obviously is super harmful in the long term. Then just as it was starting to become a problem, the universe went “okay, here’s this magic rock that just gives off energy, you can use that to generate massive amounts of power with no carbon.” And we just went “nah.”
So then, the universe is like, “alright then, how about this: you can just get it from the sun, the air and water. Again no carbon and it’s infinite free energy forever, you’re welcome.” And again, we were like “no we want to just burn fossils.” Even now at the ecosystem is visibly collapsing around us we’re adopting it somewhat, but still dragging ass on it like crazy.
It’s like whoever’s running the simulation keeps dropping the difficulty level to help us not die, and we just won’t accept it. I fully expect in the next century or so we’ll figure out cold fusion, build like two plants and humanity will just collectively go “BORING” and dig up more coal again.
Rainbowblite@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The Nuclear industry actually makes an effort to clean up after itself. Coal wouldn’t be such a big deal if they captured the carbon before it hit the atmosphere.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes.
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Relatively, yes, and not to mean somewhat. For the amount of power generated, the spent fuel/water is really not that significant.
Nothing is purely clean. Making solar panels and batteries isn’t clean; it’s just that coal and natural gas are extremely dirty on a mass scale, environmentally speaking.
If we could get the ‘big scare’ concept of Nuclear under control, we could make some systems that are even cleaner. There’s no apetite for that though.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Relatively, yes, and not to mean somewhat. For the amount of power generated, the spent fuel/water is really not that significant.
Absolutely speaking, controlling nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years is impossible and any rationalization when cheaper and regenerative options exist is idiotic.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Boiling water is the only reasonable way to turn heat into electricity.
neuromorph@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
how is solar water based?
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Actually there’s also the mirror based solar which boils water in a central column.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Photovoltaic panels don’t turn heat into electricity. It turns light into electricity.
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 2 weeks ago
Solar and wind biggest energy revolution is not needing to boil water
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Solar uses radiation not just heat.
dan69@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d like to thank some post on Mastadon, which really boiled down how and what a nuclear power plant works to provide power… the little things.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You’ve probably heard of an internal combustion engine, like what power cars and airplanes. Well there’s such a thing as an external combustion engine - a steam engine. A steam engine just needs some source of high pressure steam, the source of heat you find to boil the necessary water is almost a separate problem. You could use a wood fire, a coal fire, an oil fire, a natural gas fire. I’ve seen a small steam engine that runs on a tea candle. Heat from a geothermal vent, concentrated sunlight, or nuclear power.
How about a diesel engine? Large oceangoing vessels with 2-stroke diesel engines the size of a duplex put out a lot of waste heat, plenty enough to boil water and run a steam turbine engine. The diesel engine provides main propulsion, the steam engine powered by its exhaust provides electricity. Ships with such a system can shut down their aux engines while underway saving tons of fuel per voyage.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Can’t improve on perfection.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Burgeoning supercritical CO2 turbine technology would like a word.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
"You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry."
- Uranium, Star Wars
marcos@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most new clean energy does not use boiling water.
Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Pushing electrons? Really? Man of your talents?
fullsquare@awful.systems 2 weeks ago
there is a power generation scheme that uses high temperature fuel cells. optimally it could run on hydrogen only, but because it runs hot, it is able to take almost any flammable gas, along with some steam, and it forms hydrogen internally, then oxidizes it. this alone generates bulk of electricity, but offgas is hot, so it goes to heat exchanger which boils water, which then turns steam turbine
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s just burning a hydrocarbon with extra steps.