you did a good job i remember the comic

I was talking with my wife about a comic similar to that not even three hours ago so if you find it let me know cause I want to show her too.

"And then, the power generated is used to heat water and generate steam!"

"No...."

"That steam is used to turn a wheel!"

"No! NOOOOOOO!!!!!"

"Hey dude, calm down."

-Actual exchange during first contact.

I swear we are going to be travelling to other planets and the biggest issue is going to be how do we stop water leaking into space from our steam turbines

You're in luck. Supercritical CO2 turbines are a thing now, and they're way more efficient because they don't involve a phase change.

Solar cells, technically.

boiling water systems have a thermal efficiency of ~40% Solar cells are closer to 45% efficient

Helios is trying to build a fusion reactor that harvests the energy through electro magnetic induction.

https://youtu.be/HlNfP3iywvI

We've boiled tons of water with it, but there have been no functional turbines involved in a ten mile radius.

Give me a concave mirror and I'll change that

But what if... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

They’re actually quite similar to thermoelectric generators. But the potential difference between two semi conductors is created by a heat differential rather than by photon excitation.

Thermoelectric generators have been used on various rovers and deep space probes as well as in remote lighthouses.

And we are harnessing its power WITHOUT boiling water

"That's it?! That's the nuclear power? That's just boiling water!"

Ancient meme I had back in the day...

Supercritical CO2 has been looked at a lot for the Brayton cycle which can get 50% efficiency compared to steam that generally caps out around 34%

The US and china both published studies talking about a brayton turbine but to my knowledge no commercial plants running off of it have been built yet

Supercritical, not superconducting.

idk but you can also use molten salt

Ok hear me out...