Ocean thermal energy: Potentials and pitfalls
Abstract Thermal energy in vast reaches of the world's oceans lies waiting to be tapped by a fuel‐hungry world. The United States— the one heavily industrialized nation with “OTEC”; waters lapping its shores—is actively developing the technology; Japan and a European consortium are also pressing forward. The resource may be of practical value soon to favorably situated islands (e.g., Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba) and Third World countries. Meaningful contributions to mainland U.S. electricity needs are almost certainly a decade or more in the future, and conjectural. Environmental dangers loom if OTEC is too extensively and hurriedly deployed, and for the United States it is not a substitute for nuclear fission and fossil fuel in meeting immediate energy needs.
Ocean Energy: Forms and Prospects
The nature and distribution of power sources of the sea other than petroleum are discussed, along with possible entr�es for their use. Waves, tides, currents, and salinity and temperature gradients all have the potential to contribute useful power. Submarine geothermal sources, salt domes, ice, and other marine-associated concentrations may be more important. There are opportunities to employ these marine power resources directly rather than for contributions to power grids or power-intensive products. Ancillary employment of the seawater as a coolant and of the sediments below the seabed for the disposal of nuclear wastes may be even more important uses than employment of the power that the sea contains.
Some Evidence for Long-Period Barotropic Waves in the Florida Current
Abstract A large number of vertical profiles of horizontal current were observed during the last two years in the Florida Straits. For a two-week set of observations, it is found that westward meandering of the Florida Current is accompanied by a reduction of the overall volume transport through the Straits of Florida, deep southward flow, and a deepening of the midstream isothermal field. The meandering motion for the observed case is interpreted as a predominantly barotropic wave with a time scale of several days.