Solar Power from the Ocean, More Energy than We Would Ever Need.

In line with a previous post, Ocean Waves Could Power the Entire Planet, this discovery even confirms that the ocean is a massive storage of the sun’s thermal energy.

Nature’s Solar Collector

The ocean is nature’s most efficient and most abundant solar collector. Compare that with man-made solar panels that collects energy from the sun. They are very expensive and often times require more energy to build than what it could produce during its lifetime.

The ocean holds 300 times the energy requirement of our population worldwide. Talk about energy coming out of our ears! Theoretically, the only time ‘that energy’ will ever be used up is when mankind’s population increases by 300 fold. Which is unlikely to happen.

So if we can all drown (pun intended) from all the ocean’s energy, how can we harvest it and finally stop all energy production via harmful means (like coal, fossil fuel, nuclear, or hydro)?

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

The ocean stores 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere. Most of this heat are contained in the upper layer of tropical oceans. OTEC uses this continuously renewing energy to generate electricity without oil, coal or natural gas. It only uses the temperature difference of the hot surface water and the cold deep water.

OTEC uses the warm water (about 80^oF) to boil propane, that has a low boiling point, turns it into steam, the steam turns turbines which in turn generates electricity. Then finally the propane gas is again condensed into liquid form by the cold water (about 40^oF). This endless cycle can produce 800 million kilowatts of electrical energy.

This video explains OTEC.

Challenges

There are a couple of main challenges. It’s (1) too expensive to create an OTEC facility robust enough to withstand the roughness of the sea and (2) if it were to be built, the energy generated should be more than the energy needed to operate the facility.

But as for every challenge, it has a viable solution. Sea Solar Power claims to have designed an economy efficient OTEC facility. Not only will it generate electricity, it will also produce desalinated water and grow a variety of food for the world’s population (Aquaculture). Plants and animals that thrive in nutrient-rich, cold, deep sea water such as Salmons, Lobsters and Microalgae or Spirulina.

On the other hand, another OTEC development company, OCEES, can produce hydrogen from renewable sources on large-scale basis.

The Future is Bright

Since the rate of technology evolution is accelerating, I believe the future is bright for OTEC technology. Most especially when desperate times (climate and energy crisis) require desperate measures.