- Solar?
Wind?
Nope.
The next big source of renewable energy is the ocean.
(energetic music)
We here at Forward Thinking love to think about
emerging renewable energy technologies,
because when you look at fossil fuels, you can't deny
that there are many, many, many drawbacks.
The usual suspects in renewable energy are solar and wind,
but I'm here to tell you there's another source.
It's totally gnarly, brah.
I'm talking about waves, and the ocean in general.
I mean, the ocean is home to 321 million cubic miles
of water, and due to the tides and temperature differences,
the winds, and other factors, this water is
always in motion, and motion means energy.
So how do we harvest it?
Well, there's a company named Oceanlinx that has
a system called greenWAVE.
It's essentially floating concrete cabins that,
when water rushes into them,
it forces all the air out of the cabin through a vent,
turning an electrical generator, so you get electricity.
When the water flows back out, it creates a vacuum,
pulling air back through, turning the generator again,
and creating more electricity.
One of the most successful wave energy producers today
is called the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter.
It's a series of tubes with omnidirectional
hydraulic joints, and here's how it works.
As the waves rock the tubes, it forces oil
through motors in the joints to drive
the electricity-producing generators.
There's a catch with this, though.
Place them too close to the shore,
and you have a potential eyesore.
Place them too far out into the ocean,
you have to figure out how to get the electricity
all the way from out there back to the grid.
And that's before you've assessed any potential
environmental impact, not to mention just
the cost of the system.
The point is, you need to have a really big payoff
to make this worthwhile.
In that regard, one of the most promising technologies
is ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC.
Now, this takes advantage of the fact that
there's a big temperature difference between the
surface water that's heated by the sun
and the frigid waters deep beneath the surface.
It works best in tropical areas,
and for those of you keeping score at home,
OTEC really only works if you have a 36-degree Fahrenheit
difference between those two temperatures.
So sorry, New York and Seattle, you guys are out.
Now, how do you build one of these systems?
First you start with the electricity plant,
which you could put on land or underwater
on the continental shelf or even floating
on top of the ocean.
Then you lay a really, really long pipe deep into the ocean
to collect cold seawater.
In an open cycle system, warm surface water
is pumped into a container with extremely low air pressure,
so it boils instantly.
The steam turns a turbine and generates electricity.
Then, that steam condenses back into seawater
using the cold seawater and a heat exchanger.
And as for all that cold water that's still salinated,
you can still use that too.
OTEC cold seawater can be used to air-condition buildings
or in a process called chilled soil agriculture.
That's when you pump cold water in tubes
to cool down the soil in tropical areas
so you can grow crops from cooler climates.
These are just some emerging technologies
using the ocean as a renewable energy resource.
What other ways do you think we'll use the ocean's
power and depth to create renewable energy in the future?
I want to hear your most creative thoughts
in the comments below.
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