Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion – Telling the OTEC Story
2014 will be a year that I help my friends at Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation (OTECorp) expand their web presence, chiefly by popularizing their sister site, EmpowerTheOcean.com. My main strategy is video, brought along by social media. Everyone loves video — and search engines respond very well, particularly when it’s sufficiently relevant to its audience that it attracts a good following. And in this case, there is no end to the good ideas that we can deliver for using motion pictures to capture the most exciting aspects of the company and its technology.
Just imagine the possibilities. Here’s a small company, poised for rapid-growth, that already has over 300 investors; no, I didn’t slip a decimal; it’s not three, not 30, but more than 300. And most of them live within a short drive of the company’s headquarters in Central Pennsylvania — not exactly the place on Earth from which you’d expect an outpouring of support for clean energy. OK, so who in the heck are all these people? How did they get involved? And why? I foresee an enormous number of emotionally charged stories of great passion and commitment.
From there, we can get into the technology itself. What exactly is ocean thermal energy conversion? How does it work? What projects are in the works (both ours and others’)? When will they be operational, and what will be the results? Again, it’s powerful, compelling stuff.
Next, we’ll hit the road for a few dozen interviews with people at conferences. And here, we get another fortunate break: the Ocean Energy show this year will be held in Atlantic City in June. The EmpowerTheOcean YouTube channel will be buzzing. I already have my pass, and I predict this: nonstop talks with industry spokespeople by day, and perhaps a couple of beers and a few hands of Texas Hold ‘Em by night. Could be a lot worse.
Btw, if you’re an accredited investor and you’re interested in getting on-board with OTECorp, please let me know and I’ll arrange for you to speak with the right people.
NH3/ammonia energy storage on NH3 tankers is a great way to get energy from the OTEC ocean platforms back to mainland ports. 🙂 Just synthesize the NH3 at the platform and load it on to ocean-going NH3 tanker ships. 🙂
It will be interesting to see whether they can actually extract significant power from the ocean.
The method they are using depends on the difference in ocean temperature at different depths. The temperature difference is not great and the total amount of power available is limited by a well-known thermodynamic equation. Getting power by that means requires pumps which, obviously, use power and comprise parasitic losses. Unless the parasitic losses are less than the total power available, the net amount of power available will be zero or less than zero. Thus, to be economically feasible, the parasitic losses must be considerably less than the total power available. It remains to be seen whether they can make it work.
Hi Frank,
The issue is not technical: it does work (see R&D in otecnews.org). The real issue has been economical because large systems are required to extract power from the low energy density of such a heat source: for 277K/300K temperature range, the very maximum value (exergy) is about 3.75 MJ per cubic meter of surface ocean water in the tropics. OTEC plants can be feasible to invest only above 5 MW power, and to supply fresh water as well. You can access a draft paper of mine in my Linkedin profile.
Apart from the parasitic losses of the pumps -for pumping huge volumes of sea water- and the ammonia compressors, the ecological disturbance caused in the depths of ocean should also be considered. After all, the dense, cool and dark zone of the ocean is a storehouse/ reservoir of much nutrients generated from dead and decaying marine plants and animals and is the feeding ground, figuratively, for many a species of other marine life. What business does the terrestrial mammal, the humankind, have to churn up the ocean ecosystem bottoms up for the sake of extracting a few gigawatt of electricity? Is it justifiable?
Hi Murali,
It is justifiable because it is a renewable source for both electricity and fresh water. R&D has been going on for decades, environmental impacts included. See the portal otecnews.org. Also, you can access a draft paper of mine in my Linkedin profile.
From OTECorp’s website:
“Demonstrated to be technically feasible in the 1990s at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), OTEC is now ripe for commercialization. – See more at: http://www.otecorporation.com/about.html#sthash.oXYe15Pb.dpuf”
Liked this on FB – Luck to all!