Warming Advantage OTEC Key to Solve

Warming Advantage

OTEC Key to Solve

OTEC is key - provides baseload power and can power the globe

OTEC would be able to produce enough energy to fuel the world

Braun 2 [Harry Braun, Chairman of the Hydrogen Political Action Committee, 9/20/02, “OTEC Can Save the Oceans”]
The oceans contain 98 percent of the Earth's water, and they make up over 70 percent of the Earth's surface area that receives solar radiation. This makes the oceans the largest solar collector on the Earth, and it has cost nothing to build. Moreover, half of the Earth's surface lies between the latitudes 20 degrees North and 20 degrees South, which is mostly occupied by the tropical oceans where ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants could efficiently operate. According to calculations by Clarence Zener, a professor of physics at Carnegie-Mellon University, the potential energy that could be extracted by OTEC plants located in the tropical ocean areas would be approximately 60 mil-lion megawatts. Assuming the OTEC systems would have an operating capacity of about 80 percent, they would be able to generate over 400 billion megawatt-hours per year, which is more than three times the current total human annual energy consumption of roughly 150 billion megawatt-hours. Thus, OTEC systems could, in and of themselves, have the potential to generate enough electricity and/or hydrogen literally to run the world -- without using any of the earth's remaining fossil fuel reserves.

OTEC is best alt energy to fight warming

Huang, Krock, and Oney 3 [Joseph C. Huang Senior Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hans J. Krock Professor of Ocean &. Resources Engineering, University of Hawaii and Stephen K. Oney, PhD. and executive vice present of OCEES July 2003 “Revisit Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion System” http://www.springerlink.com/content/n864l3217156h045/fulltext.pdf]
The combination of potential benefits and advances in technology make OTEC renewable energy a very attractive system worth revisiting. It possesses formidable potential capacity to provide renewable energy and offers a significant elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. With numerous improvements and new innovations in OTEC technology, manufacturing costs have been reduced, creating a favorable financial environment for profitable investment. All these factors combined with a broad market in demand for renewable clean energy demonstrate that the current OTEC system, together with its integrated by-products, deserves a serious, critical review – from technology to economic assessment in planning for national energy security and in coping with global climate changes. The actual manufacturing cost of OTEC depends on the location of the power site. For a floating plant, the average turn key capital is estimated about 3 to 4 millions per MW, which translates into 3 to 4 cents per Kilowatt-hour. It has been shown that every one MW of electricity generated from OTEC, instead of fuel oil, can save about 40 billion barrels (BBL) of fuel oil per day (DBEDT 1993), e.g. more than $1,000 per day in current value. In a proposal for an OTEC demonstration plant of 15 MW in Hawaii, for example, it is estimated to save 600 BBL oil per day, a saving in fuel consumption alone of over $5M every year. For a 100 MW OTEC plant, the saving for oil expense is at least $36M a year.

OTEC leads to transition away from fossil fuels

Friedman 6 [Becca Friedman “Examining the future of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion: An Alternative Source Heats Up” Febuary 26th 2006 http://hprsite.squarespace.com/an-alternative-source-heats-up/]
Were its vast potential harnessed, OTEC could change the face of energy consumption by causing a shift away from fossil fuels. Environmentally, such a transition would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the rate of global warming. Geopolitically, having an alternative energy source could free the United States , and other countries, from foreign oil dependency. As Huang said, “We just cannot ignore oceanic energy, especially OTEC, because the ocean is so huge and the potential is so big… No matter who assesses, if you rely on fossil energy for the future, the future isn’t very bright…For the future, we have to look into renewable energy, look for the big resources, and the future is in the ocean.”  ¶ ecent tragic events, and their long-term ramifications for world economic structure and the reality of our shared environmental condition. The timing is very good economically for this type of system because interest rates are very low and comparatively, fossil fuel prices are very high. It is expected that with the experience gained in building these OTEC plants, that the capital costs will decrease. As with any kind of industry, the mass production and standardization of major and minor components utilized in the OTEC system will provide significant price reductions in the capital cost.

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