Ocean Thermal Energy Foundation Wiki
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Recent panel session on ocean thermal energy at the Offshore Technology Conference. Seven of the general and panel sessions -- including our session -- were videographed.
The basic and well-known sketch of an Ocean Thermal Energy system [note the necessary depth of roughly 1000 meters (3281 feet)]:
About
The Foundation
The Ocean Thermal Energy Foundation is a planned entity that will eventually be incorporated as a United States 501-C-3 Not-for-Profit Corporation. Its purpose is to advance the understanding and development of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Technology, a sustainable and environmentally friendly power generating technology that will play a key role in the 21st century.
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The Technology
Ocean Thermal Energy - The Earth has an enormous natural solar collector - the tropical oceans. "On an average day, 60 million square kilometers (23 million square miles) of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 billion barrels of oil." "Energy equivalent to at least 4000 times the amount presently consumed by humans." If we can tap into this renewable source, considering thermodynamics and entropy, approximately 1% of it could provide the entire current worldwide demand for energy. Ocean Thermal Energy Production is a technology that can extract useful work from solar energy stored in the sea. Since the sea is the energy storage medium, ocean thermal energy offers a continuus baseline supply - during bright clear days and dark nights, in still air and ferocious wind storms - without the expense and complications of artificial energy storage systems. Read more from this June 2006 article from Energy Bulletin
It is likely that deep sea OTEC would be used to perform complex and valuable energy functions such as the creation of liquid hydrogen as a fuel and the desalination of ocean waters for various uses. This would be extremely green with little direct carbon release. See Hydrogen Role.
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