I'd guess that a given a clear choice, a majority here would choose a free ad supported, information sharing app over a paid, no-info sharing app. If you have a crap load of free apps on your phone, you are taking advantage of the value of that information you are providing.

Not knowing exactly what information about me sits in the Google repository, and what portion of it can be traced directly back to me is the troubling part. I don't care if all that info is turned into 'generic' or 'anonymous' info and used for market development.

Heat transfer in any system has an efficiency loss associated with it. If you have a primary heat system and transfer that energy to a secondary steam system, you will lose energy in the process. Part of that lost energy is not only direct heat loss from the slowed heat transfer rates, but also in the additional energy required circulate through the heat exchanger, which depends on a lot of fluid passing over a larger surface area.

Water in a typical closed steam system is managed with various chemicals, and not simply pure water. That is because even with pure water, you will always get some interaction with the system elements and oxygen or whatever gases are present. Methods for managing that have been optimized for large steam plants. Who knows what would "get into the water" even in a closed system with this material and whatever others are required.

I wouldn't assume you can produce high pressure steam with any velocity through this foam. It appears very fragile, and would probably get torn apart by even a low flow approach. If true, that makes a direct closed system approach unlikely. If not true, it still would appear to require a huge exposure area to produce any usable output, which presents significant flow management and collection problems.

So, not all slashdotters are as lost on the matter as you may suppose.

Not even close. The waste is funded during the life of the plant. Today's plant designs are for a minimum 60 years of operation, but solar PV life ranges from 15 to 25 years, required all that capital to spent again to replace. Of course, nuclear plants will have lifetime costs as well, but not 3 x cap in present day dollars.

You could say that if there were no inflation, but since there is, that response doesn't hold water.

On top of that, they got those fast lane fees to cover.

Time will tell, if customers really care.

This foam looks pretty fragile to me. I would guess with any flow rate approaching what would be required to run a steam turbine, the foam would be torn apart. I think that is one reason the researchers didn't point this out as a likely use.

If there were a viable system, you would still likely WANT to use mirrors just because they are low cost and make better use of the higher cost heat transfer elements.

Only if you are boiling pure water, otherwise you will likely get mineral deposits and such rather quickly.

It seems fouling would be a big problem in an open system. If you had a closed system, sandwiched the material under a glass plate and circulated pure water or some other fluid in a closed system, with a heat transfer means on a bottom plate, then maybe that would make a usable system. But that would also reduce efficiency by some amount.

Possibly, but there is no indication if this material will see fouling or depositing from such a process.

“There is still a lot of research that can be done on implementing this in larger systems.”

Translated;

“There is still a lot of research that MUST be done TO IMPLEMENT this in larger systems.”

How about working on latency as well to enable truly responsive HD video conferencing? That, could storage, and external VPN connectivity are the key areas of benefit.

Certainly I didn't mean to totally ignore politics. If you took my post that way then I understand your response. My point is that primary drivers for a state & location selection are much more 'what can you do for me" based wrt taxes, infrastructure, energy cost, etc. If they get political concessions in that mix, great, but without those other items covered, the political end becomes meaningless.

If yo think political battling should take precedence over actual financial setup success, good luck. FWIW, If Tesla wants Texas to change, the best way is to startup in Texas.