this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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Lemmy Shitpost

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (4 children)

There is actually a Solar Power Generation system were a solar collector uses sunlight to melt salt which then circulates through pipes to a place were it heats up water to boiling and that steam then goes through a turbine thus generating electricity.

However to reach those temperatures a simple panel isn't enough so what you have is a ton of mirrors over a large area all focusing the sunlight on a central tower were the salt-melting happens.

Here is an example.

By the way, this stuff actually has benefits over solar such as the ability to generate power at night (basically you don't extract all the heat from the molten salt during the day and just keep using it to boil water to feed the steam turbine during the night), plus it's a bit more efficient than solar panels and like solar panels it's also improving, throught things like using different salts.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 hours ago

Solar collection like this can also explode birds if they fly through the wrong area as it's essentially like a magnifying glass and ants.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

Also Helios One from Fallout: New Vegas is based off of those, though I don't think we've figured out how to make an Archimedes mirror out of one and a reflection satellite yet.

[–] sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 25 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

You can also choose to divert power to either new Vegas, the people, or a giant space laser which is really quite nice compared to traditional methods

[–] halvar@lemy.lol 6 points 14 hours ago

you can't just shoot a hole into the surface of mars!

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 14 hours ago

It's pretty much a required upgrade to be able to protect yourself from dropped or balistic nukes.

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

How hot does heat need to be to salt melting?

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Depends on the salt used.

If you check here on table 5 you'll see that common table salt (NaCl) melts at 801º C.

As for what's used, in Chapter 2 of that paper they say "Molten salts consist of alkali metal or alkali metal halides and oxygen-containing salts", so it's not actually table salt that's used in Generation 2 of those kind of power generators.

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago

Thanks!

Do you know of the melting temperatures of any other substance you think I may be interested in?

[–] Cassanderer@thelemmy.club 10 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

This is not how solar panels work.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 hours ago

Each panel has it's own little steam turbine inside it in reality.

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 15 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Are you calling Lemmy Shitpost liars?

[–] Johanno@feddit.org 29 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

You sure?

This very scientific image looks very convincing to me.

I knew that photons pushing electrons around was a scam!

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago

FR. How can photons push if they don’t even have arms?

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Some do. Not photovoltaic panels but there are plants designed around this principle.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 3 points 10 hours ago

i was coming in here to say that while this post is a joke, there is a non zero number of solar farms that use hyperbolic mirrors and glass tubes to super heat water generating pressure to spin a steam turbine

[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 28 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I know this is supposed to be a joke, but it's important to understand how it really works:

  • particles from the sun hit the solar panel
  • the panel accelerates those particles, which creates fissile material
  • the fissile material is the used in a traditional nuclear reactor
  • the nuclear reaction finally heats water
[–] And009@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Giving us steam, to buy games from.

[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. And because the process is not perfect, the steam still contains some stray protons, which allows us to play windows games on linux.

[–] And009@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 9 hours ago

That stray proton is enough to power CERN.

[–] fenrasulfr@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Appart from using solar power to melt salt as a energy storage solution, you also have water cooled solar panels that store that heat as warm water.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 7 hours ago

These are cool because they add efficiency by both preheating your water for your water heater and help cool the photovoltaic cells so they can run more efficiently too. Downside of course is that there's now a bunch of water pipes on your roof too

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 10 points 13 hours ago

CCGT - A gas powered jet engine but instead of spinning to produce thrust it spins to produce electricity with a turbine. Then the hot exhaust is used to boil water to make steam to spin a turbine.

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 22 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

Where is the shitpost, solar panels do work by heating up water, unlike photovoltaics.

Solar panels are good to get a baseline amount of heated water for your home.

[–] BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago

I've seen non-photovoltaic solar panels for heating pools as well which is just a coiled black hose on a black panel.

[–] Cassanderer@thelemmy.club 4 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Solar panels do not, solar thermal conversion does, but they use mirrors.

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

My cousin (not Vinny) has solar panels to heat his water to like 50 C all year long.

And also photovoltaics for electricity.

There are also combo units that's solar and PV in one, supposedly the water cooling down the PV panels should help keep it at optimal temperatures

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 4 points 12 hours ago

By ignoring the second half of their comment you've missed the subtly that "panel" is an overly broad term and there are several different kinds of panels that collect energy from the sun for human use, among them photovoltaics, panels for heating residential water (often seen as black roof panels with pipes), and complex mirror (aka reflective panels) arrangements for melting salts. All of them use panels in some form.

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[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Can you connect that to ai data center that can generate an image of Trump with Clinton?

[–] l_isqof@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I think you forgot the oil powered generator under the boiling water.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago

It's coal powered, so it can double as a bbq grill

[–] HollowNaught@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago

Where sadam Hussein

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 101 points 1 day ago (1 children)

(these are solar thermic power plants, their panels are black and usually assisted by mirrors leading to a similar look)

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 91 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Solar thermal concentrators, they get so hot they have to use liquid metal.

They also function as adequate bird-zappers from what I've heard.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Parabolic plants also exist w/o a tower of sauron.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 25 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Why would anyone want that when the alternative is a tower of sauron

[–] psoul@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

All I want for Christmas is new petty gods with towers to worship.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 7 hours ago

Real talk, there are not enough minor gods in the modern world. GIVE ME DICKOCALYPSE DAMMIT! (nsfw link)

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 45 points 1 day ago

But half the fun is having a gleaming tower of doom!

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