| ▲ | Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation(science.org) |
| 33 points by defrost 3 hours ago | 13 comments |
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| ▲ | gsf_emergency_6 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| Vid of the engine in action, from the team that made the paper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VSmBl8Rv_o This one shows that it is not as unbelievable as it sounds :) https://youtube.com/shorts/9KuTdPGqhVo |
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| ▲ | jcims 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| DIY radiative cooling paint from YouTuber NightHawkInLight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bJnKmeNJY&list=PL1a2HkcVbm... It has pretty impressive performance. Tech Ingredients did one or two vids as well - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNs_kNilSjk Was thinking of whipping up a batch for my rv. |
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| ▲ | phyzome an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If anyone is interested in passive sub-ambient cooling (not for power generation, just for "free" cooling) I strongly recommend https://www.youtube.com/@Nighthawkinlight -- he has been doing a lot of experiments in this space and releasing recipes as he goes. Stuff you can do in your kitchen. |
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| ▲ | HPsquared 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Somewhat different, but this reminds me of an approach that uses temperature gradients in the ocean to power a heat engine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversio... |
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| ▲ | jasonpeacock 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | OTECs are amazing, and step 1 of "The Millennial Project: Colonizing the galaxy in eight easy steps"[0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millennial_Project There's a shore-based research OTEC in Hawaii, but the best is a floating, closed-loop OTEC in the ocean. | | |
| ▲ | andbberger an hour ago | parent [-] | | 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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| ▲ | clickety_clack an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| In one of the later Foundation series books, Isaac Asimov had a whole world run on this. |
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| ▲ | AnimalMuppet 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| 400 milliwatts per square meter? That's interesting that they can do it at all, but that level is completely impractical for real use. |
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| ▲ | aetherspawn 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > the generation of >400 milliwatts per square meter of mechanical power with a potential for >6 watts per square meter. Keep in mind the power is fully mechanical so no electricity or control circuit is required. And based on the simplicity it seems like a good candidate to power something that you need to last 100 years with no maintenance for example. | | |
| ▲ | abeppu an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I think the "last 100 years with no maintenance" is not likely feasible with this approach. The top plate has a coating that supports high infrared emissivity -- and I think it would need to be regularly cleaned to work well. And you can't really prevent it from getting dirty by enclosing it b/c that both substantially changes the performance and moves the maintenance burden to cleaning the enclosure. | |
| ▲ | AnimalMuppet an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Mechanical things don't usually work for 100 years with no maintenance. Bearings run dry, if nothing else. | | |
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| ▲ | foxglacier an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | So what? It's research, not business. Surely you didn't expect they'd found a practical source of free energy that was ready to compete with solar but somehow nobody else bothered to try before? |
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