What heat sources could be used for an AVE?
Since the AVE is able to transfer ground-level heat up and reject to the much colder upper atmosphere (-60 C), it becomes feasible to use existing low-temperature heat sources and extract additional energy from them. For example, the figure below from the US DOE visually illustrates the magnitude of waste heat sources from existing thermal power plants in the US. All thermal power plants must reject this heat to the atmosphere via cooling towers or once-through cooling to rivers or lakes. All of the waste heat could potentially become a fuel source for the AVE. Higher resolution version of the above figure – PNG (707 KB) In addition to sources of waste from existing thermal power plants or other industrial sources, there are also numerous sources of natural waste heat which can be used to power an AVE. For example, the warm humid air heated by the sun at the surface of the earth. The heat content of tropical ocean waters is also another enormous reservoir of potential energy. Warm trop
Since the AVE is able to transfer ground-level heat up and reject it to the much colder upper atmosphere (-60 °C), it becomes feasible to use existing low-temperature heat sources and extract additional energy from them. For example, the figure below from the US DOE visually illustrates the magnitude of waste heat sources from existing thermal power plants in the US. All thermal power plants must reject this heat to the atmosphere via cooling towers or once-through cooling to rivers or lakes. All of the waste heat could potentially become a fuel source for the AVE. Higher resolution version of the above figure – PNG (707 KB) In addition to sources of waste from existing thermal power plants or other industrial sources, there are also numerous sources of natural waste heat which can be used to power an AVE. For example, the warm humid air heated by the sun at the surface of the earth. The heat content of tropical ocean waters is also another enormous reservoir of potential energy. Warm
