Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant

[imwithstoopid]

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-ener...y-sea.html

Don't be an sesquipedalian, Eschew Obfuscation.....

Sometimes, when I see the neighborhood children make small discoveries of their own, I wish I were a child.
With apologies to Dr. Seuss

[Rob Tucker]

Someone will oppose it.

[PaulW]

Desecration

[leilanidude]

From the article:

"The maker of this plant, Makai, has just signed on to develop a 1 MW plant on the island of Kyushu in Japan and has been working with Lockheed Martin to plan a 100 MW installation in either Hawaii or Guam. Makai says that a plant of that size, which would operate offshore, would produce enough electricity for 100,000 Hawaiian homes and could be sold at only 20 cents per kWh."

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No. It costs too much if they are going to have to sell the electricity for 20 cents per kwh when geothermal is already willing to sell us more power for half that! The PUC needs to stop allowing these high-priced electricity generating schemes to inflate the consumer's costs.

[kalakoa]

sell the electricity for 20 cents per kwh when geothermal is already willing to sell us more power for half that

How much does that geothermal power cost after it's been delivered to Oahu?

[Tink]

"Could be sold at .20 cents per kWh" to who? They would sell it to the local provider, as after all the offshore would be a "private manufacturer" and would have to use the local providers infrastructure to end deliver, then the provider would add his "overhead" mark up. Simple business, still .40+ - per kWh to end consumer.

Community begins with Aloha

[knieft]

Some interesting stuff in a Popular Science article about the project:

http://www.popsci.com/new-energy-plant-hawaii-uses-ocean-temperatures?dom=tw&src=SOC

This sounds like proof of concept stuff now just edging forward. Cool tech. Getting hung up on prices is probably not the bigger picture at present.

I'm glad something has come of it after all these years. I remember nearly two decades ago scuba-ing down the bigask pipe farther than I should have. When I got back up, I felt a little light-headed. Must have been that ammonia causing me cancer or something.

Cheers,
Kirt

edit: changed father to farther--some sort of Freudian slip I suppose

[leilanidude]

pahoated - read it again. You missed the point. They are looking at creating a large system that will sell electricity at 20 cents per kwh, wholesale rate. That does ZERO to reduce the cost of electricity on the Big Island.

[Rob Tucker]

Why would you assume their goal is to lower the price of electricity on the Big Island?

[VancouverIslander]

At least this kind of technology could replace dirty energy sources like diesel generators while cooling ocean surface temperatures. From an environment standpoint, it's a win/win.

Just call me Mike