Surely the process can’t produce more power than it consumes?”
It is more accurate to say the process is powered indirectly by solar heat. The sun heats the air of the earth. We use heat in the air to aid in the evaporation process. The heat contributed by the air gets locked up as latent energy. We harvest the latent energy during the condensing process and use the harvested heat to drive the entire process. Warmer air works better because it contributes more energy and the process will not operate self sufficient in cold climates. The thermal range will expand to include colder areas as we improve our mechanical efficiency. The Rev 1 version could work in colder areas but would require pre-heating the input air.
