Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion — Good Example of a Stalled Technology
Here’s a piece in The Economist on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) that points out the sad truth about the development of alternative energy technologies, i.e., that interest is strong when oil is expensive, but wanes to zero when oil prices fall. Witness the U.S. response to the oil embargoes in the 1970s, and the near-immediate abandonment of all that when it appeared the crisis was over. And, of course, the story repeats itself into the 21st Century with our current “drill baby drill” mentality in the face of peak oil, terrorism, lung damage, and global climate change.
We really are incredibly shortsighted.
I’m reminded of what Tom Konrad of Alt Energy Stocks told me in an interview last year:
Humanity has shown time and time again that long term planning is our weakness. I don’t want to offend the creationists, but if we had been designed, we would not have this character flaw. We are emotionally designed for hunter-gatherer life. And in hunter-gatherer life, you do the same thing every year if it worked last year.
I’m pretty sure you meant to say “conversion”, not “conversation”.
😉
Yikes! Thanks…
A quick note on OTEC:
I hate always being the one to come in and deliver bad news… but the carnot limits (this is just a second law calculation) for something like this are ~7%… and it’s extremely rare at this low energy quality to find systems that can even achieve 60% of the carnot limit.
So you’re asking someone to build a system that is robust enough to withstand the ocean, which encorporates a mile-long gas-tight loop, all for ~<5% efficient conversion?
Let's just say I can see a few problems with the idea.
Yes, I know you and your dad are bearish on this, and the thermodynamic limits do make this unattractive if you can’t get a very large difference between the hot and cold water.