Ocean Energy: How OTEC Can Be A Renewable Revolution? Despite High Potential, Investment Is Lacking

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 05/12/2023 at 17:54

OTEC, ou conversão de energia térmica do oceano (Imagem / Divulgação)

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Let’s Dive [Literally] Into the Idea of Turning the Ocean Into a Giant Battery. Come Along to Understand How the Ocean Can Be the Key to an Endless Source of Renewable Energy.

What if we use the ocean as a power plant? The idea is old, but it’s still in its infancy. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC, takes advantage of the temperature difference between the warm surface water and the cold deep water. It’s simple: warm water evaporates a fluid (like ammonia), generating steam that drives a turbine. Then, the cold water from the depths cools the steam, and the cycle starts again. And the best part: it works 24 hours a day!

Giant Challenges, Pipelines, and Costs

But it’s not as easy as it seems. To start, it needs giant pipes to bring the cold water from the ocean’s depths to the surface. And these pipes have to be stable and flexible at the same time to withstand the force of waves and currents. Not to mention that storms can destroy everything, as happened with one of the first plants back in 1930.

The cost of a 100-megawatt OTEC plant can vary between US$ 780 million and US$ 1.5 billion. And there’s also the environmental issue: the process moves an enormous amount of water from the ocean, which may have impacts that we still don’t fully understand.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

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The Future of OTEC, Between Hope and Reality

Although OTEC has enormous potential, it still lacks significant investment and research to make this technology take off. Current plants are too small to answer all our questions. And, in the last ten years, progress has been minimal.

So, will the ocean be our next big source of renewable energy? The idea is great, but there’s still a lot of water to flow. For now, OTEC is more promise than reality. But who knows, right? In the world of renewable energy, anything is possible!

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Ocean Energy: How OTEC Can Be A Renewable Revolution? Despite High Potential, Investment Is Lacking

Let’s Dive [Literally] Into the Idea of Turning the Ocean Into a Giant Battery. Come Along to Understand How the Ocean Can Be the Key to an Endless Source of Renewable Energy.

Giant Challenges, Pipelines, and Costs

Major Oil, Gas, and Energy Event Will Take Place in Brazil: Macaé Energy Will Gather Petrobras, Equinor, Prio, Among Other Suppliers and Energy Executives for Business, Networking, and Employment Opportunities

The Future of OTEC, Between Hope and Reality

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Ocean Energy: How OTEC Can Be A Renewable Revolution? Despite High Potential, Investment Is Lacking

Let’s Dive [Literally] Into the Idea of Turning the Ocean Into a Giant Battery. Come Along to Understand How the Ocean Can Be the Key to an Endless Source of Renewable Energy.

Giant Challenges, Pipelines, and Costs

Major Oil, Gas, and Energy Event Will Take Place in Brazil: Macaé Energy Will Gather Petrobras, Equinor, Prio, Among Other Suppliers and Energy Executives for Business, Networking, and Employment Opportunities

The Future of OTEC, Between Hope and Reality

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At over 8,800 meters above sea level, the summit of Mount Everest is made up of rocks that originated at the bottom of an ocean about 500 million years ago and were pushed to the highest point on Earth by the collision of tectonic plates.

What seemed like waste has turned into a barrier, and now human hair collected from salons helps retain debris in the water of ancestral channels in Latin America.

Health issues urgent alert for flu and calls for the vaccination of the elderly, children, and pregnant women this Saturday with Day D and drive-thru in Curitiba.

The radio has been in more than half of Brazilian households for decades, and in 2024, for the first time in history, the number of households without a device surpassed those with a device, with a decrease of 2.3 million in just one year.

China banned the export of 22 tons of meat from Argentina.

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