It is not all that wasteful; the water is recondensed from the steam so that when you boil it again it is already quite hot. This process is 1/2 to 2/3 as effic

It is not all that wasteful; the water is recondensed from the steam so that when you boil it again it is already quite hot. This process is 1/2 to 2/3 as efficient as the theoretical maximum efficiency of any possible device, (hot temp - cold temp)/(hot temp). The difference is mostly materials science - we don't have any materials strong enough and heat-resistant enough to operate the cycle at thousands of degrees. But people are certainly working on it. There is more in universities and in labs than is dreamed of on Hacker News.