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SLR_ZA t1_iulmsij wrote

No, it's possible to boil the water to make steam

It is impossible to recover nearly as much energy from that that steam as it would take to boil it.

It's not a 'today's technology' thing it's a law of thermodynamics thing.

Water is not a source of energy, it is a medium of energy transfer.

Every kg of water at boiling point being converted to steam takes say 2133 kJ of energy.

You cannot then power a generator with that steam and get more than 2133 kJ of energy out of it. Your actual efficiency of a steam generator is 10-40%

So now you have 2133 x 0.4 = 853 kJ of electric energy.

So you take 20% to the boiler and you have 170 kJ of energy. Which is not enough to boil a kg of water.

Even if you had an impossible 100% efficiency boiler, steam system, turbine and battery system you'd never be able to pull even 1 kJ out without decreasing your steam volume.

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