Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Projects must be initiated NOW

[pipepr76]

then, what is the central theme of your video?

if you dont know how much power you can obtain from an OTEC plant, how do you know how many plants we need?

honestly, dont take this personal, im all for OTEC, i live in Puerto Rico and we have Ideal conditions for OTEC. but just because you put some equations together doesnt mean it works. just because the ocean holds a tremendous renewable clean energy source it means OTEC will work as you describe here. you haveto substantiate your alegations.

[UnderseaCaveman]

I accidently hit remove button on comment you made "talk to a mech or elec engineer you trust"... I am both, and Master's Engr in OTEC!

Thanks for the feedback...

BTW, dont like your tone......hmmmm

.....blocked!

[listen2meokidoki]

@UnderseaCaveman But I saw than hand write "each making 1MW each hour". You only have to say "each makes (generates) 1 MW".-- In 1 hour they would produce 1MWHr of Energy. But if I might also comment about the concept. It might be best (best witha capital B that is) to think about the human population. If over-night it doubles, & it has in just my life, then YOU would still be getting a little hysterical about "we're all going to DIE" when that, IN PART would be the best natural solution.

[pipepr76]

dude. Power = Mass flow rate*delta T*Cp is not the power that the system will provide. that the power source. you need to multiply that by the efficiency of your system (10% at most??) to get the power supplied by the system. unless your OTEC plant is 100% efficient. second, there are 2 water flows, hot and cold water. im not sure if the power that enters the system (which is the one you are using here) is simply p=Mdot*Cp*delta T

[UnderseaCaveman]

Pipepr,

Your comment does not address the central theme of this video, the point.

Essentially, under the best conditions (say 100% efficiency), we are way behind the "power curve" of switching to alternatives.

For purposes of this video, the simplicity of equations is sufficient and valid!

[UnderseaCaveman]

If you want a little more techy feedback,

steam power would be as described, then attenuate by turbine efficiency, finally take-away system internal power consumption (ie, pump work), and that should leave "Net Power".

But, again, under best case, we are "dead"!

[UnderseaCaveman]

to answer your question on second stream, the cold water, that would be accounted for in both Delta-T, and later in take-away from gross power due to pumping power required (of course same can be said of warm water, though, it maybe considered flowing "downstream", from atmospress to near vacuum, may not need a pump).

[ezhavapanicker]

Hi good idea

[UnderseaCaveman]

Thanks exhavapaniker!

Yeah, google "OTEC"....some good sights on topic!

[ezhavapanicker]

I think I understood the concept of yours, basically its good if we wont trouble the living beings inside the ocean. I want to share my thought, what if we use the same heat of earth from the core by putting some heat conductor tubes in there and passing the heat through turbine or rankin cycle.

[sacredthornapple]

We will freeze.

[ezhavapanicker]

OOOH!! you are so intelligent

[UnderseaCaveman]

ezhavapanicker,

Sounds like Geo-thermal...we do that on the "Big Island" Hawaii. Has some issues, but beats not having any energy.

[ezhavapanicker]

can u plz share the issues you have with that way of converting heat into electricity

[UnderseaCaveman]

The Big Island Geothermal project basically sent water down pipes to be heated by the volcanic heat. For some reason, there was steam dump line to atmosphere. This emitted sulfur gasses and was extremely loud. I think it is a case of bad design rather than bad concept. I think they at least fixed or reduced those problems. Recommend google "Puna Geothermal Venture" for details.

[Plutonwolf]

Wow! Outstanding video! (and that's a mighty tasty choice in background music!) The concept makes great sense, I have only two questions.

1. How will the generated power be delivered to the end user

2. Will this disrupt the weather/ocean currents...think el nino/la nina.

Great concept though, this is the kind of forward thinking that may just save our butts from our own foolishness! Five stars and favorited and added to a playlist!

[UnderseaCaveman]

1. If land-based, it's another Power Plant. If Sea-based, then use electricity production to "electrolyze water, gaining H2 and O2", and configure H2 with carbon (Methane), or Nitrogen (Ammonia) or liquify (Liquid Hyrdogen). These fuels could be sold to primary energy producers, and less likely to end-consumer (in foreseeable future).

2.  If we extracted 50% of global energy needs (8 TW), we wouldn't have touch more 1/10,000th of the "natural energy reserve in ocean". Fossil more effect!

[UnderseaCaveman]

2.(cont)...Fossil Fuel, I think would have a greater effect on Ocean, Weather Patterns than same energy won directly from "Ocean Liquid Solar Panel". But, in theory, yes it would some effect, perhaps one less Tropical Storm (whether that's positive or negative is a matter of perspective).

hehe....yeah, as an ocean engineer "welcome to the machine" is my all-time fav....I am listening, Floyd!

Mahalos Plutonwolf!

[Plutonwolf]

Good enough! I was thinking along the same lines. A more exotic form of energy storage and transmission may come along in the future, but these methods would do just fine.

We surely need to stop addingto the heating of the planet, the painful results are already starting to become overwhelmingly apparent in fragile but important ecosystems. That was a burned out reef at the end of your video, wasn't it.

BTW, catch Roger Waters in concert, as good as original Floyd!!!

Blessed Be

[markiz2001]

this is stupid. we already have a solution.

drill, drill, drill.

[UnderseaCaveman]

Sorry, Drilling will help temporarily....but, each new find/discovery is smaller than the last, we are short on drill rigs....do you follow the Oil Market/News/Stocks/Media? Check out "Financial Sense Online" for lots of in-depth info.. Mahalo!

[Plutonwolf]

Try drilling into your own skull, it allows oxygen an easier path to your brain thus elevating your thought processes and maybe, just maybe raising you past the 85 I Q level.

[TonyTheMuscles]

thats true, there is potential for water energy, I saw this new invention i think it was called the electric snake, its a rubber tube with two metal ends, and floats in the water, while conneted to this machine, and uses the currents or waves for producing power

[UnderseaCaveman]

Tony,

yeah, wave power machine, there several variants to that idea...but, "electric snake" sounds pretty cool (from marketing perspective). Orginal design was called a "Salter-Duck" (doesn't sound too cool).  Mahalo!

[orinocojones]

I think you over-estimated the concept of 'lay person'... I got lost after equator...

[UnderseaCaveman]

Orinocojones, I applaud you for trying, and I will reconsider that estimate, and try again...more fundamental! Mahalo! My bad, but at least the "Floyd" is worth listening:)

[orinocojones]

Yeah the Floyd was awesome : D

[dstick1]

The real issue is can we design those 15 million stations so that they also act as FAD's? Now there's a good idea ;} Good to see you back in the water! Cheers for sharing

[UnderseaCaveman]

dstick.....OH yeah, they make fabulous FADs (for others, "Fish Attraction Devices").

The discharge from this type of plant attracts the full line of feeders to predators.

Cheers!

[erkd1]

Wow, thats a impressive video. One particular dilemma is as global warming progresses the run off of fresh water from Greenland and the Artic ice sheets into the North Atlantic makes the water less saline and in turn that makes it harder for the cool water to sink...sabotaging 'the Machine'! If that does happen we are all proper f*cked.

[erkd1]

Not sure if that effects your presentation because most of it was over my head ;)

[UnderseaCaveman]

erkd, no worries bud, our engineering efforts can not compete with the immense system called OCEAN and Sunshine! We will not "shut-down" the ocean circulation! Or we would have already...."Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another"

[UnderseaCaveman]

erkd,

It is extremely hard to imagine that we can actually build 15 Million Plants even in the next 1000 YEARS...we would have to build 15,000 plants per year....not gonna happen.

This is precisely the point of that data, we are already Phacked hard! Most of us just don't realize it! My point is this, if we can't build 15000 plants a year of the most logical efficient energy source, how the hell are we gonna build anything less efficient in greater numbers/rate! hmmmmmm!

[johnnyLiberty1776]

Great Post USCM!"Nice to see you Back"

[UnderseaCaveman]

JL1776, Aloha, USCVM

[OperationCrossroad]

UC, I was wondering, what's your opinion on wave power? There's a wave farm that just came online in Australia (see video watch?v=V27ZBODcv0c). That video states that wave power can be used as a base renewable energy source (which wind and solar obviously can't do) at only 1.5 times the coast of coal plant! Do you think this is all Bravo Sierra or can wave power really be scaled up and become viable solution for coastal cities?

[UnderseaCaveman]

OpXroad,

I'll follow up on your question in next video on this subject, thanks for bringing that up. Aloha, USCVM

[PoliticalOverload]

Sorry to throw rocks, that's just the engineer in me. Again, definetly not saying it can't be done, and I've heard tidbits about how a lot of these problems might be overcome. Could be interesting...but I dunno...one thing I've come to understand about engineering things is that what might pan out on paper doesn't always make it, but you have to be persistant too.

[UnderseaCaveman]

PoliticalOverload,

good to see .. new channel.

I'll do a follow up on this to answer your questions. I actually did my Master's in Engineering on this subject. I am travel right now...more later, Aloha, USCVM

[PoliticalOverload]

Really? Nice. Well...can't wait to hear more about how it could be pullled off.

[PoliticalOverload]

Also, as you are probably aware, the potential for generating usable energy is proportional to the difference in temperature, so you would need a very large system to generate power when compared to systems with a higher delta t.

[PoliticalOverload]

The problem is really that temperature delta. You laid out something like 40 degrees, but I believe that's over a very large distance, which means you either have to rely on thermal buyancey, which is slow, or use some of your energy to generate pressure to circulate your head transfer fluid.

[PoliticalOverload]

As an engineer, and someone who has a big passion for alternative enrgy projects (designed and fabricated a solar powered stirling engine for my senior project) I've always had doubts about the potential of Ocean Thermal Energy. Not to say that it's not possible, just difficult and probably expensive for what you'd get out of it.