this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 116 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

Yeah about that.

Those are termosolar powerplant, they use the sun to boil water and spin a turbine.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 33 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Why do I have an overwhelming urge to climb that

[–] Hedup@lemmy.world 44 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You know if you're a moth, you can just fly up there.

[–] humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 5 months ago

BRotHeR i cRaVe foR tHe ForBiDDen liGhT

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 months ago

You played too many Ubisoft games.

[–] fascicle@leminal.space 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Are you perhaps living in a place where it snows or something

[–] sudoMakeUser@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sam McGee just wants to do free climbing

[–] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Um...no.

Sam McGee just wants to be warm

[–] sudoMakeUser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah that was the joke

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Better solar power extractor.

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 10 points 5 months ago (3 children)

If you think about it coal fired power plants are also solar powered 🤔

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

True, just that an intermediate step(of many steps) is to continually destroy the atmosphere.

[–] Aneb@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's not like we need it to breath anyways. We'll just pay corporations for oxygen masks and "Atmo-tanks" to breath. We have commodify everything because Capitalism requires it.

[–] mattyroses@lemmy.today 1 points 5 months ago

C'mon Cohegan, give dees peepul aihhhhhh

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Only that sun fell on plants millions of years ago. We really don't want that million year old carbon dioxide in the atmosphere alongside the recent stuff

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 4 points 5 months ago

Very true, the conclusion I'm drawing is that solar power is actively harming the environment and causing climate change. No new solar!

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fine to think of it, it's also renewable!

[–] simcup@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

AFAIR you can't get new coal/oil because in the meantime there are fungi in the ground that would process the dead plants/alge/whatever was pressed to make the hydrocarbons. but i can't find the source of that info, so grain of salt

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Most coal comes from the carbonipherous period, a period in which plants evolved wood but ~~microbes~~ funghi (shutout to Lyrl's below comment) still hadn't evolved wood-eating.

You can get new coal in marshes because I think the process to eat wood requires oxygen, and flooded areas don't allow for wood to decompose totally. That's why they can pull out wooden ships from 500 years ago from the bottom of the ocean in relatively good condition!

[–] Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That it took 400 million years for one fungus to evolve wood eating is wild to me. And no other microbe has ever evolved that ability: my understanding is all wood decay fungal species today evolved from one shared ancester.

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[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Stupid science and its "biology" ane "evolutionary timelines" always trying to ruin my fun...

Are you referring to lignen developing before there was a bilogical process to break it down?

[–] RavingGrob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

do you not know how those work?

the sun shines on the side angled upwards and heats it up. everybody knows hot air rises, so this raises the blade, creating the spinning motion.

it's basic, really. third grade stuff.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I really love how it's almost that simple.

the sun shines on the ~~side angled upwards~~ planet and heats it up. everybody knows hot air rises, ~~so this raises~~ creating winds that drive the blade, creating the spinning motion.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Omg every body knows wind is created when god sighs at the collective sin of the world.

Some people so dumb.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

the great orc father mungnog's farts propel the wind, all know this.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I declare bankruptcy!

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 13 points 5 months ago

The sun heats the planet unevenly, this causes wind. Wind is solar

[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 22 points 5 months ago

Its even more metal they heat salt that heats water to spin the turbine. This keeps the power generation well after sun down.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Although they're falling out of use these days, both because they're not very environmentally friendly on account of being instant bird death-rays, and also because regular solar panels are cheap enough that it's not worth it to make a big thermosolar plant.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Habitat destruction, air pollution, and pesticides are unfathomably worse for birds.

[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 2 points 5 months ago

And I'm not sure how much alive things are in the Atacama (except when there is a blooming desert fenomenon.

[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 5 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Idk, my country just inaugurated a gigantic one of these.

Also, fotovoltaic pannels decay with time and have to be replaced, 15 years I think? Their manufacturing isn't also the greenest thing on earth.

You build one of these, and you can run it for a long long time.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 5 months ago

15 years I think

This number gets lower every time I see it.

First, manufacturers typically guarantee their panels for 25 to 30 years.

Second, while we can extrapolate from existing data and perform accelerated aging tests, we're actually not completely sure how long PV panels last in the real world because the oldest ones from 1987 are still going.

[–] asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 5 months ago

fotovoltaic pannels decay with time and have to be replaced, 15 years I think?

much longer: https://www.slashgear.com/1989112/solar-panel-lifespan-longer-new-study/

[–] psud@aussie.zone 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The usual warranty period is 20 years generating 80% of the nameplate generating Watts

They keep generating reasonable amounts of power 50 or 100 years later, though they tend to get overtaken by new technology in 10 to 20 years, and since they pay for themselves in about 4 years in my area they get replaced while still working well

I think we export our obsolete panels to developing nations

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Lies! Well the thermal plant is also fine but photovoltaics are really, really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM

[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I wonder if it could be worth it to make one of those on other planets/the Moon one day. No birds to worry about there.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Solar panels are still cheaper and easier. Most spaceships and probes rely on them.

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[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Ahkshually, those tend to boil salt...which is later used to boil water.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That technology is a relic of the past. Solar panels are cheap and efficient now. Just use solar panels.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 5 points 5 months ago

And much easier to operate and troubleshoot.

[–] AzuranAurora@piefed.ca 4 points 5 months ago

That's what they want you to think. I bet it also powers a secret orbital space laser. I should know, a man with a theoretical degree in physics told me.