Energy: Electric Power From Sea (1983)

[Music] research scientists create products which enrich the quality of our lives products to increase our food supply dyes and pigments which surround us with color pharmaceuticals to improve our health products which reaffirm the value of science to mankind as part of its continuing program in support of science education siba geige is pleased to present this issue of giant screen report [Music] the science screen report developments in science engineering and medicine that help solve the problems of modern life the oceans covering 70 percent of the earth collect and store solar energy an immense reserve of potential power [Music] today scientists and engineers are developing advanced technology to extract this heat and convert it to electricity ocean thermal energy conversion otec in the near future such otech power plants would provide pollutionless almost unlimited supplies of energy this is a report on progress towards harnessing the ocean's energy resources so the oceans of the world are store houses of enormous amounts of solar energy a century ago the french scientist arsane darcenval proposed using the temperature gradient between the sun heated surface waters and the coal deep to produce electric power he suggested warm surface waters could vaporize ammonia as at right driving a turbine to make electricity cold deep water in the condenser at left cools the ammonia to liquid and the cycle is repeated part of the electricity drives the water pumps the surplus is available for any purpose in the late 1970s the first ocean thermal energy conversion system mini otech was built and installed aboard a barge moored three kilometers off hawaii after beachfront assembly of the kilometer long deep water pipe also used as a single point mooring the pipe was towed out to the waiting ocean heat power plant barge cold water pipe and barge are linked and activated the hot surface water piped into the evaporator heats ammonia which drives a turbo generator to produce electricity then passes through a condenser where cold bottom water cools it to liquid again and the process is repeated for three months mini otex generator powered only by the temperature gradient 27 degrees centigrade on the surface 4 degrees centigrade in the deep produces 57 kilowatts of power 40 kilowatts drive the pumps and other otech machinery the surplus 17 power on-board instruments mini otec demonstrates the otech principle a reliable ocean energy power source [Music] in the early 1980s the next step an oil tanker is refitted as a full-scale floating otec laboratory and renamed the ss ocean energy converter the test site chosen for the project otec 1 is 19 kilometers off hawaii to anchor the ship a 4 000 foot single point mooring is deployed shown here with stop-motion photography meanwhile on a windswept hawaiian beach the cold water pipe is assembled its triple cluster of 1.3 meter diameter buoyant flexible polyethylene pipes is 670 meters long almost half a mile [Music] a 50-ton buoyancy collar enables the pipe to stand vertically when released from the ship the pipe which can deliver up to 78 000 gallons of water per minute is assembled on railroad carriages stop motion photography shows deployment of the deep water pipe the million pound conduit extending across the entire bay [Music] the pipe is then towed by tugboats to the otech-1 mooring and ship during delivery the flotation collar keeps the high front end afloat while the deep tail end is supported by a barge arriving at the mooring the pipe is stretched across the surface of the sea then slowly back down into the deep a 75 ton weight keeps it vertical as it goes down [Music] [Music] once in position divers check the pipes collar [Music] and align underwater tv monitors and its stabilizing system for link up with the ship [Music] mating to the ship is critical the stabilizing system and flotation collar which link ship and pipe must be made to function effectively the stabilizer system minimizes the effects of pipe motions due to deep sea currents the flotation collar allows the pipe to float aiding recovery should bad weather force the laboratory vessel to return to port the ss ocean energy converter carries full-sized heat exchangers condensers evaporators and pumps and could in principle generate a megawatt of electrical power unlike many otech however it lacks turbo electric generators rather its purpose is to gather critical engineering performance data it is a floating otec laboratory probing problems that must be solved before full-scale commercial otec plants can be built what are the best designs for pipes and heat exchangers how might marine life and corrosion affect otec systems what are the impacts of otec on the ocean environment how can the efficiency of evaporators and condensers be increased [Music] in time the components and concepts field tested aboard otec 1 could be employed in 40 to 80 megawatt demonstration otec power plants which would produce usable power otec could also power offshore smelters or refineries or chemical plants electrolyzing seawater to make hydrogen liquefacting air to make nitrogen combining hydrogen and nitrogen to make ammonia to be processed into fertilizer [Music] energy from the oceans might also be extracted utilizing underwater windmills powered by ocean currents or ocean wave energy tapped using dam atolls which divert waves into an inverted bowl-shaped collector spinning a turbine a proposed tidal energy extraction system employs rising waves to compress air to spin turbines and falling waves to draw in air to maintain the spin a reshaped seabed could funnel waves focusing their energy to spin turbines directly still other ways to draw on the ocean's various energy potentials currents waves tides ocean heat sea and land winds salinity gradients and others are being sought [Music] the first otech power plants will probably be sited near major islands such as puerto rico or hawaii which currently use about six hundred thousand barrels of imported oil per day other near future otec locations include guam french polynesia singapore and rio de janeiro as well as florida and other coastal states [Music] ocean surface temperature profiles suggest the best otech locations tinted red or orange are about 20 degrees latitude from the equator the gulf of mexico coastline alone might generate as much as 50 000 megawatts of power in a few decades [Music] otec ocean thermal energy conversion an energy source which is continuous pollutionless almost unlimited and requires no new technical breakthroughs otech solar energy from the sea to benefit everyone another way of turning the sun's power into useful energy [Music] science screen report has been produced by siba geige corporation with headquarters in hardly new york as part of its continuing program in support of science education [Music] you