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Post by eclipse on Apr 27, 2013 17:35:49 GMT 9.5
If this thing works as advertised it should be baseload, because the temperature variable between deepwater oceans and tropical surfaces doesn't change too much. Once they scale it up to 100MW (as planned) we're talking about real scale. I wonder what that would eventually cost though? But anything that provides baseload power at a reasonable enough price has got to be cheaper than wind & solar's intermittent supply. nextbigfuture.com/2013/04/lockheed10-megawatt-ocean-thermal.html |
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Post by anonposter on Apr 28, 2013 4:58:36 GMT 9.5
I'd expect OTEC to be more expensive than nuclear but given that it's reliable it'd still be useful (OTEC is already in use, though I think that'll be the largest scale anyone has deployed).
I suspect that the side benefits of OTEC would be the real reason they get deployed with the electricity as a useful by-product (it'd be great for aquaculture, could even be useful for U mining).
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Post by eclipse on Apr 28, 2013 20:41:40 GMT 9.5
I suspect that the side benefits of OTEC would be the real reason they get deployed with the electricity as a useful by-product (it'd be great for aquaculture, could even be useful for U mining). U mining! Now there's a reason to run OTEC even without the electricity benefits!  |
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Post by speedy on Apr 29, 2013 20:04:59 GMT 9.5
The big problem with OTEC is a very low Carnot limit, around 7% efficiency, for a 5 C source and 25 C sink.
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Post by eclipse on Apr 29, 2013 21:00:30 GMT 9.5
The big problem with OTEC is a very low Carnot limit, around 7% efficiency, for a 5 C source and 25 C sink. Whatever the technical problems, if they can produce baseload electricity at a cheap enough price, then they're a solution. |
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Post by anonposter on Apr 30, 2013 5:26:02 GMT 9.5
The big problem with OTEC is a very low Carnot limit, around 7% efficiency, for a 5 C source and 25 C sink. That's partly why I don't think many will be built for electricity production but instead that electricity will be obtained as a useful by-product what what they really get built for. |
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Post by jagdish on May 1, 2013 14:42:26 GMT 9.5
I've always felt that the biggest source of renewable power are ocean currents. Just float some reaction turbines at suitable depths and collect the current. Somebody should tell me why it is not being done already?
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Post by anonposter on May 1, 2013 16:06:42 GMT 9.5
I've always felt that the biggest source of renewable power are ocean currents. Just float some reaction turbines at suitable depths and collect the current. Somebody should tell me why it is not being done already? It's been looked at but not much work has been done on it. |
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Post by engineerpoet on Jul 17, 2019 23:21:39 GMT 9.5
As of now, the Lockheed OTEC page (https://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/otec.html) redirects to the products page. It seems safe to say that OTEC is still not a thing.
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