12-03-2012, 04:30 PM
OTEC with National Energy Labs in Kona has been doing thermal energy conversion since the 70's. (Don't mean to hijack the thread, but it seems along the same lines.) I think they now power the whole complex and have considered building a 300 some watt generator to sell power to HELCO. Converting thermal differences from deep sea water and surface sea water to energy seems really interesting to me. Do not know much about it and do not know how environmentally friendly it is, but from what I have read it certainly seems more so than geothermal. All the damaging chemicals put into the groundwater, the blow outs and leaks, and just being on a rift zone make geothermal seem a last resort. Anybody know more about OTEC?