Limitless offshore energy - ocean water district
cooling
- the California clean energy solution?
We
have gone to the moon and split the atom, but can we prevent
Global and
Ocean Warming - as the world population explodes and
economies expand? Among
all the peoples of the world the West
Coast Americans are most blessed with
the intellectual,
technical and financial means. Do they have the heart and
spirit
for change? Do they have a vision? There are certain to be a
large number of people ready to act now, if they are confronted
with a
"real" solution.
It is ironic that one such solution for Ocean Warming
is
available to us from the Ocean itself - in the form of the cold
Pacific Coast currents. If Californians decide to tap this "new
limitless energy discovery" to establish district cooling
systems their
energy shortages will end. Many may doubt a
solution that is so
straightforward - but there it is, close
at hand and immediately available.
The efficiency savings are
worth tens of thousands of megawatts in free
energy. The
exploitation of this energy is 10 times less costly than the
supply of electricity for air-conditioning. Is this for real? -
You bet!
- Have a look at our District Cooling navigation Link
to learn about a
success story from Toronto, Canada. You will
find out how PRACTICAL it is to
use ocean, lake or groundwater
as a clean energy solution for cooling
Green Buildings.
Building cooling with electricity and
air-conditioning should be outlawed. To burn so much fuel to make cold water (or
air) is crazy when we have an abundance of ambient cooling power in our
immediate environment. When you use Cold Ocean water you don’t create the cold,
you just pump it (a low energy load suited to solar energy supply from PV)
to where it is needed. Water pumping is so efficient and it is energy dense and
highly conductive for good heat absorption. When cooling a transparent building
envelope like our SOLAROOF it takes away the sensible heat by conduction and
absorbs the solar infrared before it enters the building as well as the
re-radiated long wave thermal. The roof system remains cool (cool daylighting)
and has no heat capacitance – unlike opaque insulated roofs that become hot and
continue to radiate into the building long into the evening.
All we need to do to have all the equivalent benefit as
air-conditioning is to pump the cooling water to the buildings. The pumping
requirements are actually less than with the electrical/mechanical approach
because the reduced demand will save the construction (or operation) of the
thermal power plants. Each avoided kilowatt saves two kilowatts of thermal waste
heat. How does the power plant discharge this waste heat? By pumping two times
the volume of cooling water as would be needed to absorb the cooling load
directly from the buildings. The power plants pump tens of thousands of cubic
yards of water per day. It is considered as small energy penalty for creating
electricity. But, how foolish is it to use precious electricity to produce
cooling in buildings when cold water can do the job.
Real energy solutions will not turn back the economy. Is this a
selfish, uncaring attitude for the environment? That could be
one
conclusion. The other conclusion is that some of us believe
that solutions
will be found that will solve environmental
problems (including Global
Warming) without damage to the
economy. This later approach - call it
sustainable development -
would offer a real hope to the world's
impoverished counties who
also need a path to prosperity that will not
damage the
environment.
I hope this will stir up some some discussion! How about some real action
from you movers and shakers out there?
Don't disappoint me this is my first posting!
Richard Nelson
