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.
Power/energy: Thermal energy conversion: Tapping the sea depths: Floating energy plants could convert heat stored at different ocean levels to electric power
Discusses ocean thermal energy conversion [OTEC] in the light of the United States $38 million expenditure on that technology in 1979. The authors consider electricity to shore schemes in this article suggesting that the potential for electric energy in ocean thermal gradients off the United States and its islands is of the order of 200 CrW. Costs are such that a 250 MW scheme off Puerto Rica could be less than those of a combined cycle oil fired plant by 1990 if oil prices continue to rise.
Salinity Gradient Power: Utilizing Vapor Pressure Differences
By utilizing the vapor pressure difference between high-salinity and lowsalinity wvater, one can obtain power from the gradients of salinity. This scheme eliminates the major problems associated with conversion methods in which membranes are used. The method we tested gave higher conversion efficiencies than membrane methods. Furthermore, hardware and techniques being developed for ocean thermal energy conversion may be applied to this approach to salinity gradient energy conversion.