Mostly, it’s taken a while for a plant to come online because of competition with more traditional energy plants like coal-fired, gas-fired, dams, and nuclear power. Here’s the background:
The idea of harnessing the temperature gradient to generate power has been around for a while. The Department of Energy says the OTEC concept originated in 1881 with a French physicist named Jacques Arsene d’Arsonval. In 1930, his student, Georges Claude, built the first plant in Cuba, but it was destroyed by storms soon after it was built. Other plants followed but they were small, and didn’t generate much energy. The idea came back into vogue in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but went out of fashion again when oil prices dropped.
Because nowdays people are more concerned about the environment, and looking for greener energy options, OTEC may become a viable contender for a more environmentally-friendly energy future.
Check out the full article over on the Popular Science website.
Source: PopularScience.com “A NEW ENERGY PLANT IN HAWAII GENERATES POWER FROM OCEAN TEMPERATURE EXTREMES”
Photo Credit: Makai Ocean Engineering