Rick Dworsky: A Warm Bath of Energy -- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
Posted by Prof. Goose on Monday June 05, 2006 at 5:14 PM EST
[editor's note, by Prof. Goose] This is a guest piece by Rick Dworsky--he has been involved in environmental conservation and energy issues for over 30 years in government and private industry.
In 1870, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne wrote: "I owe all to the ocean; it produces electricity, and electricity gives heat, light, motion, and, in a word, life to the Nautilus."
Indeed, the Earth has an enormous natural solar collector - the tropical oceans. "On an average day, 60 million square kilometers (23 million square miles) of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 billion barrels of oil."(1) Energy "equivalent to at least 4000 times the amount presently consumed by humans."(2) If we can tap into this renewable source, considering thermodynamics and entropy, approximately 1% of it could provide the entire current worldwide demand for energy. More than enough energy is available, we only need a way to get it - in a practical, cost effective, ecologically safe and sustainable way.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a technology that can extract useful work from solar energy stored in the sea. Since the sea IS the energy storage medium, OTEC offers 'always on' baseline supply -- during bright clear days and dark nights, in still air and ferocious wind storms -- without the expense and complications of artificial energy storage systems.
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