Bastard's Notebook

On the whole, I agree with you... but you're forgetting one major source of heat energy - the sun. While obviously solar panels are out of period for general steampunk usage, they are using a solar steam variant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Solar_One)[Wikipedia] in the desert near me which is generating utility-capacity solar energy with liquid and parabolic mirrors.

It's a pretty impressive thing to see, especially from the air.