OTEC - Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

OTEC - Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

The world needs renewable energy badly this century because the oil and gas economy is doomed due to both high extraction costs and environmental concerns. Renewable energy forms are hidroelectricity, solar, wind, biomass, ocean waves and tides, river flows, geothermal, and nuclear fusion, this one on R&D, technological demonstration phases. The OTEC system, which stands for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, taps into the stored solar energy in the ocean by using the temperature difference between the ocean surface and the bottom of the sea for extracting work through a Rankine cycle. The ocean is indeed a huge solar capacitor, its temperature at about 1,000 m depth is steadily around 4ºC, and at the tropics ranges from 15ºC to 30ºC, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which turns out to be a base-load energy source, a reliable and clean energy solution.