I don't understand why, we work on old, non-efficient technologies when we have better ones at less cost... This article talks about some new contract Lockheed Martin is getting involved in. I suspect it is to please the "greens" and their lobbies.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6543901.ece
Its scientists are working on a plan to harness the difference in temperature between the surface of the sea and the ocean depths to generate electricity.
The concept predates even Lockheed’s involvement. French physicist Jacques-Arsène d’Arsonval came up with a plan to tap the ocean’s energy in the late 1800s, and a small plant was built in Cuba before the second world war.
The basic idea is simple. Warm water at the surface of the ocean is used to heat a liquid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia. The evaporating ammonia gas drives a turbine, generating electricity, and is then cooled back to a liquid by very cold water pumped up from the depths of the ocean. Other versions of the plant include desalination as part of the process, making fresh water as a byproduct.
To generate significant amounts of electricity, large volumes of water need to be moved. A full-scale plant, which is Lockheed’s goal, would use a wide pipe descending several hundred metres into the ocean - a significant engineering challenge that the company thinks it might be able to meet by exploiting the kind of advanced composites it uses on military aircraft.
Lockheed is going ahead with the ocean research under a contract it was awarded last year by the Department of Defense.
Lockheed is going ahead with the ocean research under a contract it was awarded last year by the Department of Defense.
Chris Kubasik, executive vice-president electronic systems at Lockheed, said the electricity produced would be fairly expensive. “Depending on the size of the plant, we are looking at about 25 cents to 30 cents per kilowatt hour, which is maybe double what you would pay in the continental US. But somewhere like Hawaii, where they rely on imported fossil fuels to generate power, they are already paying more than 50 cents.”
My comment on the Times articles.
Very nice...Lets spend billions on R&D on unproven technologies that will provide electricity at 25 cents to 30 cents per KWh when we have proven, efficient nuclear power stations that can produce the same KWh for 5 times less. Al the crazy things we do for indulgences and "green" lobbies.
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