Slashdot Mirror
Harnessing Vertical Sea Temperature Gradient
Sterling D. Allan writes "Sea Solar Power Inc., run by three generations of James Hilbert Andersons, has developed a solar power technology that does not fluctuate with the weather, but is available constantly. Their solution is to harness the solar energy stored in the sea by tapping the thermal gradient that exists naturally between the surface and deep waters, using a reverse refrigeration cycle. The modeling and testing done by the Anderson family over three generations since 1962 predicts that the cost of energy generation through this method will be within a price range comparable to nuclear, coal, natural gas, and other contemporary grid power plants. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC, was invented in 1881 by a French scientist, Jacques Arsene D'Arsonval. SSP should be ready to build their first full prototype 2-3 years from now."
Further, what of the potential for secondary effects? Climate changes brought about by changes in ocean current temperatures? Remember, el nino/la nina are caused by a change of only a few degrees. That's not unforseeable for a large-scale technology such as this.
Oh, and BTW - it makes a lot more sense to base this on something like an oil rig, rather than a ship. Just sayin', is all.
I did a report on OTEC when I was in junior high--18 years ago--based on an article in Scientific American. There are prototype facilities in a number of countries--I visited the facility in Hawaii five years ago, which was at least a decade old then.
It's an intriguing idea, but this smacks of somebody trying to get publicity to bring in venture capital or something of the sort.
why not just harness the wave energy?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
True. What we need is something like Trantor - use the (negative) heat gradient from deep in the earth instead of the gradient in the oceans. Of course, we'll have to do more research drilling, but we're already getting close to the mantle!
--LWM
ps - no "think of the earthworms", please.
First of all, the turbines killing birds myth is getting really tired. Buildings kill birds too, but we seem to be building those. Properly located wind farms do not kill significant numbers of birds. This myth comes from the fact that one particular wind farm was placed directly in a valley that birds migrated through, giving them no choice but to go through and risk being killed. There's tons of other wind farm installations which show birds who have a choice to go around them, do go around them.
And what do you think that solar energy is going to do if you don't turn it into electicity? The sun already raises the temperature last I checked.
No, but it does derive it's power from heavy elements that were created by the explosions of older stars.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
The ocean is so grossly unimaginably big that we would need an absolutely huge operation to even cause a measurable effect. If you really tried to change the temperature by even a fraction of a degree using this method you would have to pump extremely large quantities of water---quantities so large that I don't think anyone would ever consider building something so massive.
People sometimes forget the scale of things. On a global scale, we are not even part of the equation.
But you also have to consider the opportunity costs of doing this. If we would raise the global atmospheric temperature 1/10 of a degree with all the carbon we were burning, what will the net effect be if we can convert a significant portion of our energy sources from burning carbon to mixing a small amount of cold and warm water?
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Fission reactors, our only current form of nuclear power, split uranium nuclei into smaller fragments and thereby release energy. However, to form the uranium atom in the first place from smaller constituents therefore required energy. This energy is thought to have come from a supernova ~6 billion years ago, predating the formation of the solar system. Thus current reactors are, by some (possibly warped!) definition, still using fossilized "solar" power. The same can also be said of geothermal which relies mainly on natural decay of nuclei formed by the same supernova.
Only if we ever get fusion reactors working then we really say that we are no longer reliant on solar based power...and that's because we will have made our own mini-sun.
pebble bed reactors don't go china syndrome. environmentalists attitudes about nuclear is based on decades-old technology and watching too much "silkwood"
thermocline, solar, biodiesel, wind, tidal turbine, wave generated, etc.: these are all very cute boutique energy sources. but when all put together and maxed out in terms of realization of potential they won't dent 5% of our energy needs
oil and gas and coal are incredibly dirty and even geopolitically dangerous and increasingly expensive
put it all together and pebble bed reactors are an environmentalist's and energy policy maker's best friend
now we just need the lowest common denominator of uneducated environmentalist's opinions to catch up with reality
ps: YOU CAN'T MAKE BOMBS OUT OF IT
educate yourself, don't let your uneducated fears dictate your opinion
as time goes by, nuclear is only going to look more and more attractive to this world, once everyone gets a real education of the positves and negatives of nuclear compared to everything else
because the biggest thing going against nuclear really is only inertia and ignorance
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Correct me if I've got my wires crossed, but I thought the sea temperature was about a constant 4 degrees all the way down, once you get below a certain distance of the surface. The reason being, that water colder than 4 degrees has lower density, therefore always floats upwards. That's why the ocean isn't frozen at great depths. It doesn't mean you couldn't tap that gradient anyway, but the depth required presumably wouldn't be all that much as long as you'd got at least as far as the 4 degree level.