Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation

Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by andbberger on Sunday December 07, 2025 @07:12PM (#46186830)

wiki article states "Up to 10,000 TWh/yr of power could be generated from OTEC without affecting the ocean's thermal structure". which converts to about 500GW which... isn't that much

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Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by pezezin on Sunday December 07, 2025 @08:29PM (#46187302)

10 000 TWh/yr is one third of the current total electric energy generation of the whole planet, is not a small amount.

Source, page 39 of the full report:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2025/electr...

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Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by nine_k on Sunday December 07, 2025 @09:40PM (#46187721)

This can't be correct.

10,000 TWh/y = 1e+7 GWh/y, divide it by 365.25 days/y to produce daily output of 27,379 GWh/day, then by 24 h/day to get pure power of 1,141 GW. It's still more than a terawatt, three orders of magnitude larger than the largest nuclear reactors.

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Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by andbberger on Sunday December 07, 2025 @10:07PM (#46187869)

oops. yes. still not that much though. i mean it's a lot but it's "one more large industrialized country" a lot not "kardashev 2" a lot

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Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by WJW on Monday December 08, 2025 @06:42AM (#46191163)

Kardashev 2 has a Dyson sphere. Of course anything on a single planet can never have that much.

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Re:Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation by IAmBroom on Monday December 08, 2025 @11:14AM (#46194056)

Those goalposts of yours are on a FTL ship...

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