OTEC Corporation — A Leader in Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
As the name suggests, OTEC Corporation, whom I’m meeting next week on my trip back East, is one of the leaders in the development of ocean thermal energy conversion, a technology with huge potential to change the world energy picture. Best of all, these folks, while they’re true business professionals and leading scientists, are acutely aware of the environmental benefits that are at stake here.
Their website contains a wonderful section called “Common Ground” which begins with an excerpt from the writings of Amy Maddox: “Underneath We’re All the Same.”
He prayed, it wasn’t my religion.
He ate, it wasn’t what I ate.
He spoke, it wasn’t my language.
He dressed, it wasn’t what I wore.
He took my hand, it wasn’t the color of mine.
But when he laughed, it was how I laughed.
and when he cried, it was how I cried.
That’s what I love about what all of us clean energy folks are doing here. We really ARE bringing about a reduction in ecologically damaging processes and doing something good for mankind and all life forms; we actually ARE making a difference. For once, the good guys are going to win one.
Getting energy from the difference in temperature between surface and deep water was proposed even before 1940. At that time, it was determined that the parasitic losses would exceed the energy available because the difference in temperatures was inadequate. The laws of physics haven’t changed since then. Advances since then in pump technology, heat exchanger technology, and turbine technology have been minor. It is unlikely that that approach to harvesting energy would be economically possible even if it is able to harvest some energy.
The maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine is determined by the difference between the two temperatures on which it operates. The greater the difference in temperature, the greater the efficiency. The difference in temperature between deep water and shallow water is a small fraction of the temperature difference on which power plant steam turbines operate, yet they have difficulty achieving an efficiency of even 50%.
This is a situation in which science can quite easily predict how much power would be available and whether the system could be made to be practical. However, it is important to listen to the right scientists. Remember that in slightly earlier times, the cigarette companies had no trouble hiring doctors and scientists who asserted that smoking was safe.
Either the proposal is a fraud, or the proposers are technically incompetent.
P.S.
Exactly what makes OTEC Corporation “A Leader in Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” as it claims to be? How many successful ocean thermal energy conversion projects have they completed to demonstrate their leadership and competence?