Essentially all water from 2,000 or more feet below the surface of the ocean is cold, nutrient rich and free of surface pathogens. The technologies that have been developed to put this cold deep ocean water (DOW) to use are simple, already proven and inexpensive. The materials are readily available. The resource is renewable and virtually unlimited. It can be used in a non-polluting fashion. It can be used continuously. In some cases, like in Northern California, surface and near-surface water is cold enough to be considered. With early support from the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, a suite of uses, and technologies for these uses, have been developed by Common Heritage Corp. (CHC) and other innovative users at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) in Kona, Hawaii. The CHC operates a demonstration facility at NELHA to illustrate how these uses of DOW can transform many of the barren coastal deserts of the world into oases of prosperity and plenty. The most profitable immediate application of DOW technologies for California is air conditioning and cooling. Spacious buildings and hotels are normally cooled with chilled water circulating through the structures. The water is kept cold with refrigeration units (chillers) requiring much electricity. A single hotel room requiring from 0.75 to one ton of air conditioning per day has an energy requirement of 0.9 kilowatts of electricity. A hotel or resort complex with 1,000 rooms has a possible peak electrical demand of one megawatt per day just for air conditioning. However, if such buildings are close to a source of cold ocean or lake water, technologies are available to make direct use of the DOW resource for air conditioning and industrial cooling needs. This process eliminates the need for chillers and greatly reduces the amount of electricity required. Any building that requires a cool atmosphere, located near cold ocean water, is a potential candidate.
California's energy future and cold ocean water
Sea Technology ; 44 , 7 ; 30-34
2003
5 Seiten
Article (Journal)
English
Pathologie , Küste , Elektrizität , Klimatisierung , Kaltwasser , Tiefsee , Energiebedarf
CALIFORNIA'S ENERGY FUTURE AND COLD OCEAN WATER
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