fp.

Keep in mind the power is fully mechanical so no electricity or control circuit is required. And based on the simplicity it seems like a good candidate to power something that you need to last 100 years with no maintenance for example.

abeppu•28m ago

I think the "last 100 years with no maintenance" is not likely feasible with this approach. The top plate has a coating that supports high infrared emissivity -- and I think it would need to be regularly cleaned to work well. And you can't really prevent it from getting dirty by enclosing it b/c that both substantially changes the performance and moves the maintenance burden to cleaning the enclosure.

AnimalMuppet•4m ago

Mechanical things don't usually work for 100 years with no maintenance. Bearings run dry, if nothing else.

foxglacier•14m ago

So what? It's research, not business. Surely you didn't expect they'd found a practical source of free energy that was ready to compete with solar but somehow nobody else bothered to try before?

clickety_clack•14m ago

In one of the later Foundation series books, Isaac Asimov had a whole world run on this.