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The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached temperatures of 500 degrees at the bottom. If you could dig down to where the temperature reaches just over 212 degrees, would you be able to run a steam engine by putting water in the hole and letting it boil to create steam to power the engine. As long as the heat remained the same and was able to properly run the steam engine, it would seem like a very renewable energy source as the water could be collected and dumped back down the hole to repeat the process indefinitely.

Kola Superdeep Borehole, https://archive.is/0zuzE Steam engines, https://www.mpoweruk.com/steam_turbines.htm

The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached temperatures of 500 degrees at the bottom. If you could dig down to where the temperature reaches just over 212 degrees, would you be able to run a steam engine by putting water in the hole and letting it boil to create steam to power the engine. As long as the heat remained the same and was able to properly run the steam engine, it would seem like a very renewable energy source as the water could be collected and dumped back down the hole to repeat the process indefinitely. Kola Superdeep Borehole, https://archive.is/0zuzE Steam engines, https://www.mpoweruk.com/steam_turbines.htm

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[–] • 1 pt

Aside from the more obvious geothermal discussion I would suggest a range if sterling engines at much shallower depths could also generate power based on the temperature difference at the frost line. The metal costs are high and the issue of lubrication may be a challenge but after that its passive energy generation that works whenever its significantly above or below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

If somebody could make them in huge size varieties we could use them to recapture lost energy wherever a temperature differential exists the limiting factor is really just the cost of metal and machining. Give it a couple of decades, if civilization is still around we'll have extraterrestrial metal sources to cut costs and hyper efficient metal 3d printing and we could be building these things everywhere just to capture lost thermal energy.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Sterling engines are cool. But, highly inefficient. They'll spin a flywheel, but as soon as you put any load on them, they crap out.

[–] • 0 pt

I'm just suggesting it be done to capture electrical power with a brushless motor, attic heat and a small bank of sterling engines could probably light a western home.

In conjunction with a controller and a battery to only use the power when electricity costs typically peak it should save a non trivial sum of cash. Obviously this sort of thing should be done in conjunction with other forms of energy production. The engines get more powerful the higher the temperature differential so as 3d printing technologies develop and metal costs plummet custom sterling engines built to wedge into anything which produces stout temperature differences like a heat pump could scavenge energy from the system; at that point it becomes about not leaving power on the table.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Yeah, doesn't work. Put a load (brushless motor) on a sterling engine, and it won't work. You may be able to scale it up to the point where it can do a little bit of work. But, it will be a lot of material for a few volts.

The Sterling engine is an oddity. It's cool looking, but worthless.