{"id":34264,"date":"2023-12-07T21:31:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/?p=34264"},"modified":"2023-12-07T22:41:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T21:41:18","slug":"infinite-power-source-energy-from-seawater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/unendliche-stromquelle-energie-aus-meerwasser\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Thermal Energy: The infinite power source?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy from seawater<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tropical oceans absorb 278 petawatts (1PW = 1000 terawatts) of solar energy every day. Just a fraction of this energy would be enough to cover the world's daily electricity needs.<\/p>\n

The British company Global OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) wants to tap into this enormous source of energy and put a floating ocean thermal power plant into operation by 2025.<\/p>\n

Concept<\/strong><\/p>\n

The OTEC principle is not really new. The first tests and experiments were carried out as early as 1981. OTEC works best in marine areas with high temperature differences. In the tropics, for example, the temperature of the surface water is 25 degrees or more, while it only reaches 4 degrees at a depth of 800 metres.<\/p>\n

Functionality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two water pipes with cold deep water and warm surface water connect a floating platform anchored to the seabed. A closed circuit uses the warm surface water to vaporise ammonia and the gas produced is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity. The ammonia is then liquefied again using the cold deep water.<\/p>\n

Advantages<\/strong><\/p>\n

Compared to conventional renewable energies such as photovoltaics and wind power, this system works permanently. It generates a continuous flow of electricity that can be used to react quickly to voltage peaks in the grid. A large number of such systems could theoretically even help to reduce sea temperatures and thus slow down global warming.<\/p>\n

Disadvantages<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, there are also some technical challenges to overcome.\u00a0 <\/span>These include the threat to the platform from tropical storms, high material wear and tear due to aggressive salt water, but also the considerable energy consumption of the pumps required.<\/p>\n

Economic efficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historically, efficiency has therefore been a gamble, as the example of an OTEC built in Japan in 1981 shows. It required more energy to operate than it generated. However, current developments indicate that today's plants with an output of at least 100 megawatts could be economically viable, despite the high initial investment involved.<\/p>\n

\"Island
Island state Democratic Republic of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Principe 200 km west of mainland Africa. Source: Google 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Global OTEC plans to build its first commercial project, the \"Dominique\" power plant with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts, around 200 kilometres off the West African coast and supply electricity to the island state of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe from 2025.<\/p>\n

Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

The future looks promising if this type of plant becomes efficient enough to generate affordable green energy. This would be a significant step towards sustainability, especially for the more than 600 million people living on tropical islands, who currently depend largely on fossil fuels for their electricity supply.<\/p>\n

Source: FocusOnline<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energie aus Meerwasser Tropische Meere nehmen t\u00e4glich 278 Petawatt (1PW = 1000 Terawatt) Sonnenenergie auf. Bereits ein Bruchteil dieser Energie w\u00fcrde ausreichen, um den weltweiten Tagesbedarf an Strom zu decken. Das britische Unternehmen Global OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) will diese enorme Energiequelle anzapfen und bis 2025 ein schwimmendes Meeresw\u00e4rmekraftwerk in Betrieb nehmen. Konzept Das […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,486,42],"tags":[4704,6471,6478,6474,6472,6477,6463,4946,6470,6473,6462,6475,6476,6479,2922],"class_list":["post-34264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technologie-news","category-headlines","category-news","tag-ammoniak","tag-dominique","tag-erderwaermung","tag-fossile-brennstoffe","tag-inselstaat","tag-meereswaerme","tag-otec","tag-photovoltaik","tag-salzwasser","tag-sao-tome-und-principe","tag-strombedarf","tag-thermal-energy","tag-thermalenergie","tag-waermekraftwerk","tag-windkraft"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}