[Coral-List] Pipes hung in the sea could help planet to 'heal itself' - Independent Online Edition > Climate Change

[John Ware]

Tim,

What came to mind upon hearing about the 'pipes in the sea' was the NOAA 
ill-advised OTEC program of 20+ years ago or so.  OTEC = Ocean Thermal 
Energy Conversion.

This was long ago and I was only peripherally involved so memory may be 
somewhat degraded.  The idea was to suspend 30 foot diameter pipes 300 
feet long from the ocean surface.  Somehow - the exact details escape me 
- the temperature gradient between the surface and the deep end of the 
pipe would be used to generate a current (water flow) which would drive 
some sort of generator.  I believe some scale models were built and I am 
sure that if you Googled OTEC you would find all sorts of stuff and, I 
believe, some of it recent.

One of the major problems, as you can imagine, is how do you get the 
energy you generate to shore?  A long power cord?  Use the energy to 
separate water into H and O and ship the H to shore?  

John

Tim Hayes wrote:

>Dear Coral-Listers:
>
>I'd be very interested to here views on the implications of the  
>following news story
>
>http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3001626.ece
>
>Tim Hayes
>Midland Reefs
>www.midlandreefs.co.uk
>www.coralmagazine.co.uk
>
>
>
>
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>
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>Coral-List mailing list
>Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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>  
>

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