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Chinese Developer To Build Ocean-Water Thermal Energy System
the_newsbeagle writes "When you've got a wacky high-tech idea that will cost a lot of money, head to China. Lockheed Martin is the latest company to heed this advice. For decades, Lockheed has investigated ocean thermal energy conversion, in which the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep water is leveraged to produce power. Just a few years ago, the company was working with the Navy and discussing a possible OTEC pilot project in Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. That idea has since been scrapped, and Lockheed is now partnering with a Chinese resort developer to build the 10-MW pilot plant off the coast of southern China. Lockheed hasn't disclosed the cost of building this plant, but outside experts say it might cost more than $300 million."
The most commonly used heat cycle for OTEC is the Rankine cycle using a low-pressure turbine. Systems may be either closed-cycle or open-cycle.
-- wikipedia
considering the parties involved, it's obvious this is going to be a completely closed-cycle system. i'll wait until someone make and open-cycle version for Linux.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
We have no idea what this is going to do to the local ecology,
Yes we do. Natural ocean currents produce millions of cubic miles of upwelling every year. This is utterly insignificant by comparison. There would be far more adverse effect on the environment if they didn't do this, because China would otherwise burn coal to generate power. Deep ocean water is very rich in nutrients, so after the heat is exchanged, the warmed deep water can be dispersed on the surface to improve fishing yields.
If someone could supply cold ocean water in large quantities at the surface, it could significantly cut the cost of air conditioning for large hotels and office buildings.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I visited the energy park on the west side of the big island of Hawaii eight years ago or so. It's quite an interesting place. They have large ~3 foot plastic pipes going down deep into the ocean. They pull up cool water from various depths. They have tenants at the facility trying to make use of that cool water. I remember a solar power plant, and an algae bio-fuel facility (I guess algae likes that kind of water). They also had a company that took the cold salt water, pulled the salt out, and bottled it for very expensive drinking water (it's supposed to be very pure).
Here are the two problems with the demonstration OTEC plant they had decommissioned that I remember the docent telling me about:
1. The salt water just eats everything.
2. The low temperature difference between the deep water and the surface means that you have to build a BIG machine to get net energy out.
I wish them luck. This is not a slam dunk.
OMG - it's not just the windmills but the trees, mountains, and every fucking building on the planet that does this, so are we all doomed?
Now you cannot possibly be so stupid as to not have picked this up so what is you motivation in writing such bullshit to trick the gullible? Is it a prank or do you just feel like you want to trick kids as a bit of propaganda to help out the oil industry? As someone in the oil and coal industries I can say that we're doing quite well without your "help", so kindly fuck off because you are making us all look bad.
The wind turbine syndrome shit is all a transparent con by some idiots that are annoyed at windmills ruining their view. The instant cure for wind turbine syndrome appears to be getting some sort of financial benefit from windmills.
Damm, where are my mod points. The reason the ocean around the Galloglass islands is so rich in sea life is because of one such upwelling. The power in those upwelling's is several orders of magnitude higher than our global energy needs and natural fish stocks are very high where they occur naturally. The waters around natural upwelling's is so productive they could be used to map the global southern ocean fishing fleet.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
$300 million is about what the USA spends per day in Iraq/Afghanistan.
In a week that's over a billion dollars.
Imagine if that money had been spent on something productive instead, like energy research.
No sig today...