3 ms·
There are a looooot of moving parts in a CCGT generating station, multiple oil loops, multiple coolant loops, many consumables, a complex control flow. Being a
by 15457345234 3y ago
There are a looooot of moving parts in a CCGT generating station, multiple oil loops, multiple coolant loops, many consumables, a complex control flow.
Being able to replace the combined turbine/alternator assembly with a 'when it gets hot, voltage comes out' unit would give you significant reliability gains and lower operating costs.
- pbmonster 3y agoWell, you still have to cool those cells. It's still a heat engine, after all. And you can't just let radiation do the job for you, no way the semiconductor likes getting anywhere close to this hot.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoLiquid cooling with a heat exchanger can be pretty low profile.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoYeah came here to say this. A complex turbine setup is large and complex. A panel setup with liquid cooling and a heat exchanger isn’t. I feel like these sorts of things should be useful in situations where there’s a lot of excess heat in some other process that’s typically wasted. Smelters, incinerators, high temperature chemical reactions, etc. Because they are presumably not large you can clad and enclose the high temperature area in these sorts of panels and capture 40% of the wasted energy and divert it back into the process. That would have compounding effects.