Comment by singhrac
1 year ago
I think you’re being a bit pedantic, actually. I work in power systems in the US (though not an expert) and the term thermal being used to refer to coal, gas and nuclear, with the latter a bit flexible, is very common. For example, it’s very common to say “thermal systems provide inertia”.
One could argue concentrated solar power [1] is thermal as opposed to photovoltaics.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
shrug sure, but people don’t talk about it that way, at least around me. They use thermal to mean a power source where you burn something and get energy out.
In following the Ukraine war, I've come to understand that in certain usage, 'thermal' always implies 'nuclear thermal', almost like a euphemism rather than a useful descriptor that includes other forms of thermal.
So I think it's a terrible term in general and it's much more useful to describe the fuel, that's all I was asking for.
I see the word thermal used for coal/gas all the time.
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I just finished a day of skiing. I am taking off my thermals. Thermal is an incredibly broad term to let yourself pigeonhole it to a first association.