Ocean Energy Recovery

Add this to your hat. All it requires is a 100° temperature differential. I'm with you. Why aren't we hearing more about these things?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/4245896

GA!

Exactly what you need when your region is blessed with high temperature geothermal source, it seems the way to go.

But what about the rest of the world?

"Operating costs is often what kills the competitiveness of the new technologies. We need to find ways to get win-win situations."

Well that pretty much sums up the whole reason why we are using what we use for energy sources. They are the ones that have proven themselves to have been worth the time effort and money that was needed to develop them into the highly effective and competitive sources we are using today.

The real issue with new tech is that too many dreamers believe that all we need is to have someone else do the work financing and developing of their ideas to make them work in the competitive manor they envision them to be.

Sorry but I have my own dreams and goals to finance and develop so I just don't have the time money or want to pursue others ideas for them.

Fair enough. I don't want to pay for somebody's windmill that cost more than it produces either.

I am just trying to find ways to make the interesting technologies pay for themselves.

I read a report that claimed that before the 70's, it took one barrel of oil to get 30 barrel of oil out and refined. They pretend that it is now closer to 3:1 because it doesn't gush out of the ground anymore. This means that if the trend continues, in 20 years, we will still have oil, but it might not be worth extracting at the present price. This will be a big tax on the growth of the society. Adding plain wind mills and solar energy production makes this ratio go down even more.

While I don't agree to spending billions on technologies that don't perform just to meet a political agenda, I believe that we must consider "competitive" ways to produce the energy we need.

Also we must find ways to reduce our consumption. This is another very important issue.

Well where I live the oil gushes literally, 2000 - 3000 PSI surface pressures at wells are surprisingly common here, and the ones that are not self flowing still tend to be able to run at 1000 - 2500 Bbl's a day providing the crude can actually be transported away that fast which it presently can't.

Then there is the wind power issue we have here in our state where wind power has in fact continually proven itself to be cost effective to work with. We may not represent the rest of the world but at least we do represent something gainful!

But then again if someone wants to give us subsidies to produce oil and wind power on top of our present profits we are not dumb enough to say no to that either. Maybe that's how the 630,000 odd folks in this state manged to pack around $1.5 billion dollars away into our states saving accounts while the rest of the country spent itself broke and then some.

But what do we know about money and resource management for profit anyway. We are all just a bunch of hillbillys, dumb farmers, and uneducated prairie hicks that just don't get it you know.

Not enough bang for the buck.

ΔT is too low for good Carnot efficiency; hence such schemes require HUGE capital expense.

Is it worst than wind or solar?

Probably. Also, it is typically remote from where the energy is needed.

Why remote? There aren't any large city by the warm oceans?

Not very near any major ocean depths....

OTEC--Been done for years off the west coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. Drove past it all the time--It was called OTEC also--Google or Wiki it to get more data. They also were using GeoThermal from the numerous volcanic hotspots on the same Island. THe biggest problem in that technology was the corrosion factors of the sulfuric acid and other gases, and the inaccessability of the pipes at depth. I am sure all of this info is easily available on line, and from contributing members.

Energy. It is all around us. We use the natural power of the sun for solar energy. Windmills likewise use the natural forces of wind to create power. The world has used moving water to create energy for centuries. I don't understand why we cannot use the most abundant and powerful force on earth: harnessing the natural incredibly powerful ocean tides and even waves. There is more ocean than land! It seems to me that this would provide more than enough natural power to supply the world with clean, inexpensive energy. Basically it is simple biomimicry. Huge clean energy generators could be used that would not cause catastrophes like off-shore oil drilling. I would make it one of our top priorities! I'm tired of paying outrageous, non-negotiable electricity costs because of the monopolies and lack of competition.

It's NOT inexpensive, but we see that you don't know that.

For a very good, unbiased review of the actual costs/impact of most of the so-called "alternative energies", including the various schemes for extracting usable energy from the oceans, I suggest you begin with David MacKay's "Sustainable Energy- Without the Hot Air".

Available for free download.