While wind and solar power are certainly the major alternative energy sources which we hear the most about, there is a quiet movement afoot to harness the power of the mighty oceans themselves.  The theory of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) was originally conceived of by the French engineer Jacques D'Arsonval in 1881. However, at the time of this writing the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii is the home of the only operating experimental OTEC plant on the face of the earth.

OTEC is a potential alternative energy source that needs to be funded and explored much more than it is at the present level. The great hurdle to get over with OTEC implementation on a wide and practically useful level is quite simply cost. It is difficult to get the costs down to a reasonable level because of the processes presently utilized to drive OTEC. Ocean thermal energy would be very clean energy source and not add pollutants into the air. However, as it presently would need to be set up with our currently available technologies, OTEC plants would have the potential of disrupting and perhaps permanently damaging the local environment.

Three Kinds of OTEC

Closed Cycle OTEC makes use of a low-boiling point liquid such as propane, for example, to act as an intermediate fluid. The OTEC plant pumps the warm sea water into the reaction chamber and boils this intermediate fluid. This results in vapor from the intermediate fluid propelling the turbine of the engine, thus generating electricity.  The vapor is then cooled down with cold sea water.

Open Cycle OTEC is not that much different from the closed cycle, except that in the Open Cycle there is no intermediate fluid. The sea water itself serves as the driver of the turbine engine in this OTEC format. Warm sea water found on the surface of the ocean is turned into a low-pressure vapor under the constraint of a vacuum. This low-pressure vapor is then released in a focused area and it has the power to drive the turbine. To cool down the vapor and also create desalinated water for human consumption, the deeper ocean's cold waters are added to the vapor after it has generated sufficient electricity.

Hybrid Cycle OTEC is really only a theory at this time. The theory, however, seeks to describe the way that we could make maximum usage of the thermal energy of the oceans' waters. There are actually two sub-theories to the theory of Hybrid Cycling. The first involves using a closed cycle to generate electricity. This electricity is in turn used to create the vacuum environment needed for open cycling. The second component is the integration of two open cycles such that twice the amount of desalinated, potable water is created than would be with just one open cycle.

In addition to being used for the production of pollution free electricity, a closed cycle OTEC plant can be used to treat chemicals as well.

OTEC plants, both open cycling and close cycling kinds, are also potentially useful for pumping up cold deep sea water which could then be used for refrigeration and air conditioning. Furthermore, during the moderation period when the sea water is surrounding the plant, the enclosed area can be used for mariculture and aquaculture projects such as fish farming.

There is clearly quite an array of products and services that we could derive from the alternative energy source known as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion.

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