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A comment on Wendelstein 7-X: Gigajoule energy turnover generated for eight minutes. Parent comment

Re:Wendelstein 7-X: Gigajoule energy turnover generated for ... by jessriedel on Friday August 11, 2023 @06:24PM (#37094791)
The reason just that this is a simple process for which a steam turbine can achieves 90% of the thermodynamic optimum. To my knowledge, the only reason people consider alternatives is to reduce capital costs. You're still capped by thermodynamics though.
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Re:Wendelstein 7-X: Gigajoule energy turnover generated for ... by nerdponx on Friday August 11, 2023 @07:07PM (#37095146)
That's what I was wondering: if heat -> steam -> turbine is close enough to the theoretical upper limit and you get diminishing returns by other means.

Still, it seems very indirect. Like generating solar power by using a parabolic mirror to heat water instead of photovoltaic panels... but of course I just found an example of doing that too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_trough

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Re:Wendelstein 7-X: Gigajoule energy turnover generated for ... by Iulioh on Saturday August 12, 2023 @11:45AM (#37101337)
There are multiple solutions of that sort but all failed due to high maintenance costs

Usually the liquid is some sort of oil that csn reach higher temperature and then the oil is used to heat water

Another design uses hundreds of mirror centered around a high tower with molten salts as the heat medium

The really good part of this design is that the molted salts can produce energy for 3-4h after the sun is set.

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