Climbing Down from Hubbert's Peak

In previous posts I have discussed the need for and the logistics of weaning ourselves away from the fossil fuels that are poisoning our air and contributing to the climate disruptions we are seeing all over the world. Despite the clamor of anti-scientific and anti-intellectual disinformation coming from an administration that has been in the deep pockets of the Oil industry from the start, it is becoming clear to anyone who is paying attention (or who has not been paid to NOT pay attention), that we are reaching the End Of Oil. Since the 1970's US oil companies have known that we have passed the half-full mark on our domestic oil reserves and will soon be running on empty. There are no more American gas stations on the road ahead. Estimates vary about how soon we will be completely out of American oil, but most researchers think that we only have another 15 to 25 years of American oil left (add another week to that if we despoil the ANWR to get at the deposits there.) In some cases, it is not so much that the oil is not there, it is simply that it becomes more and more difficult and expensive to get it out and to refine it into a usable form. I know you have heard all this before. If you have not, start with Deffeves' two books, Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage (2001) and Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak (2005). Then read the first section of Kevin Phillips book, American Theocracy (2006), in which he traces the way the oil economy has controlled and doomed American democracy.
Most people are plenty frustrated at this point. The problem seems to be very clear (it is certainly clear to the residents of New Orleans' 9th ward): if we are running out of oil for energy and if continued use of fossil fuels is contributing to global climate disruption and catastrophe and putting our energy fate in the hands of Middle Eastern oil brokers who helped bankroll 9/11 and who will sell more oil to China and India in the next decade than we could possibly buy or afford, then why the hell are we not doing anything about it? The answer is just as clear: we elected (wrong word. We allowed the inauguration) of an oil patch president who has dismantled controls, safeguards and regulations on big business in general and on oil in particular, increasing government incentives, tax loopholes and windfalls for Big Oil in a careful, systematic and effective program. What happens as we run out of American oil? Take a peek at your local gas pump. Then double those prices. Then triple them. Same oil. Same cost to recover, refine and ship it, so why will it cost $8 to $12 dollars a gallon? Republicans like to blather about the free market forces that result in windfall profits because of artificially-imposed scarcity, but the fact is that there is no free market at work here. There is welfare for the corporate super-rich, a welfare system purchased with lobby dollars which ultimately come out of our pockets, yours and mine.
Again, I know you know all this. So what is new? Are there any solutions? What in God's name can we do? Alternative energy holds the key. We must replace fossil fuels as our primary source of energy. Our existence as a culture literally depends on it. Perhaps our existence as a species. The big question, of course, is WHICH alternative energy? There are lots of partial solutions out there: conservation and CAFE standards will help, of course, the less we demand, the less we need, but we are not a culture that is much into self-sacrifice and abnegation and this will come only when cheap oil goes. By that time it may be too late. Photovoltaic and wind energy have potential and should be pursued much more aggressively than they are now; nuclear can never be called "clean energy" until we figure out how to dispose of toxic waste that remains deadly for thousands of years; fusion energy would be great if we could ever figure out how to hold superhot plasma in a magnetic bottle, a problem that has eluded us for 40 year now; ethanol is expensive to produce and corrosive to the transport systems and most of the other alternatives suffer from the same flaws: too expensive to produce, even at mass-market costs, too marginal in their potential output to be considered as a replacement for petroleum. There are, finally, two co-dependent technologies that are emerging as a true solution: hydrogen fuel cell-powered engines (to replace internal combustion engines) and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology to produce the massive amounts of hydrogen required to supply a transportation industry based on hydrogen as a fuel instead of petroleum. Ironically, the Bush administration has supported hydrogen fuel cell solutions because they envision producing the required supplies of hydrogen from coal-fired power plants! Talk about insanity. "Yes, ma'am, the doctor recommends that the best way to cure the virus is to cut off your child's supply of oxygen. Works every time."
Not very many people know about Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology and those engineers and scientists who do know a little about it are basing their evaluations of its viability on data that is least a decade out of date. There are companies out there, Ocean Engineering and Energy, Inc., in particular (http://www.ocees.com/) that are having significant success with drawing energy from the temperature differential between the warm upper levels of the tropical ocean and the much colder lower levels. Using turbines that take advantage of the thermodynamic principles that warm water rises/cold water sinks, OCEES is able to produce significant amounts of electrical power that is then used to desalinate sea water for drinking water, chill seaport buildings using the cold water from the ocean depths and, most importantly, produce hydrogen gas in abundance through electrolysis. This hydrogen can then be compressed and liquefied and shipped worldwide in tankers that are currently used to transport compressed natural gas.
Pie in the sky? Hardly. OCEES has previously constructed a working model of this technology off the Kona coast of Hawaii (the plant is currently being re-built on a larger scale to take advantage of newer construction materials). They have won a competitive bid to supply the energy needs of the US Naval base on the island of Diego Garcia, a small, British-owned island off the coast of Sri Lanka of critical strategic importance to the US Navy. The plant is currently under construction and is on time and on budget. When completed, it will supply electricity, drinking water and air conditioning to the facility, replacing an inefficient, failing and dirty diesel generation system that is on its last legs. This week, Hans Krock, president of OCEES and a former college roommate of mine, is in Taiwan discussing OTEC energy plants with the premier and his staff. His next stop is China to discuss the same issue with energy staff members there. Hans, a graduate of Arizona State University and Berkley (Ph.D.) has been working on OTEC technology for thirty years and is the acknowledged world expert on the technology. He is a professor of Ocean Engineering at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus (Honolulu). For years, Hans has been leading the fight for the recognition of this eco-friendly energy source and for years he has been thwarted, frustrated and bullied by the representatives of Big Oil. Just as Standard Oil and the consortium of California Oil companies conspired to purchase and mothball the trolley system of Los Angeles and just as they routinely purchase and shelve independent technological innovations that would improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, they have routinely intimidated OCEES clients, used lobbyists to deny construction permits and falsified RFP documents to keep OTEC technology out of the hands of those who could benefit by it. That is changing. There is enough interest in and understanding of OTEC and its value that even Big Oil cannot keep it in the box. The question that we are facing now is very simple: will the US recognize and take advantage of this unique and incredibly powerful source of hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy, or will we continue to go to war over oil and wind up buying our hydrogen from China or Hong Kong just as we now buy our oil from the Middle East?
There is always a little old lady in the back of the room who stands and asks, "Yes, but sir, what can we as individuals do about all this?" And here is the answer: educate yourself. Read up. Explore the options. Ask embarrassing questions. Read Carl Pope's column on the National Sierra Club website at: http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2005-07-28.asp And perhaps most important right now, participate in the process. The National Sierra Club has mounted a project to determine the energy programs that its members want the club to focus on. They have a survey on-line at http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/surveys/energy.asp that will allow you to express your interest in current energy solutions and which ones the Sierra Club should support. (you will need a user ID and password, which the website will provide) Unfortunately, like most energy researchers, the survey developers have marginalized OTEC energy, partly because it is frequently lumped in with drawing energy from tide and currents, a much less viable solution. So do this: take the survey. If you are persuaded that OTEC is worth a closer look, tell the Sierra Club. Your voice will make a difference and the Sierra Club can make a difference. Which means that many years down the road you may be able to look your grandchildren in the eye and say "I helped make a difference." How much is that worth to you?

Why do we need Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?

We are committing suicide by oil. Since the discovery of coal and the industrial use of fossil fuels, our culture has been poisoning our atmosphere with particulate matter by-products and CO2, initiating a process that has resulted in the catastrophic disruption of worldwide climates. We have destroyed an alarming amount of the protective ozone layer of the earth and are only just beginning to see the results in the dangerous levels of unfiltered UV rays in places like Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Glaciers in all parts of the world (Glacier National Park, Greenland, Iceland) are melting at a rate much faster than computer models ever anticipated. Hurricanes and cyclones have not only become more numerous, they are starting earlier in the season and warmer ocean temperatures are resulting in much more violent storms. Every objective scientist worth his degree and not in the pay of a giant corporation or the White House will verify these facts. If you disagree, you are too stupid to understand the rest of my argument, so return your head to your butt and go do something to entertain yourself while the end approaches.
The rest of the industrialized world has recognized this problem and the seriousness of it and has come together to make a start at addressing the problem through accords expressed in the Kyoto Treaty of 1997 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol) The US has signed but not ratified this treaty, which is a way of saying: "Sounds good; you guys let me know how it turns out." George W. Bush, in particular, has made a point of stating that he would not permit the ratification of the treaty without binding agreement on developing nations because of the economic impact to US corporations. So, because the solution is not perfect, we will continue making the problem worse. That makes sense.
We are at the end of the era of Big Oil. Most oil experts agree that sometime in the '70s the US reached "Hubbert's Peak," the point at which the oil which is easy to recover has been recovered and the cost of recovery of the shrinking amount of oil remaining will rise significantly. In other words, American oil supplies in the National Gas Tank reached the half-way mark in the 1970s and since then we have been gunning our Hummers down the highway with no more gas stations ahead. Big Oil does not like to talk about this much because they don't want people to start looking seriously at alternative replacements for petroleum products. They, more than anyone else, have known for 50 years that the end was coming, but it is to their advantage to ignore alternative fuel sources for as long as possible in order to make exorbitant profits from the remaining oil supplies as they become more and more scarce. But despite what the Bush administration would like you to believe, what's good for Standard Oil is NOT what's good for the county. As we run out of oil, more and more desperate measures will be proposed by legislators whose campaigns and war chests depend on money from Big Oil. ANWR will be despoiled for the paltry amounts of oil beneath the surface and our importation of foreign oil from an increasingly hostile Middle East will continue to escalate, as it has since US oil reserves peaked, assuming that we can out-bid the Chinese and Indians who are only just beginning to start making their oil demands clear.
Alternative forms of energy are not just desirable, they are critical to the viability of American culture. Unfortunately, very few of the alternative energy sources have the potential to provide more than a fraction of the energy necessary to keep our economy and our energy-centric culture from collapsing. Photovoltaic and wind energy are both excellent sources of energy and we need to be developing them as quickly and aggressively as we can, but most of the other options have serious drawbacks aside from scalability. Ethanol, no matter where it comes from (corn or sugar) is energy-intensive to produce; coal is so dirty that the cost and energy required to produce "clean coal" plants is prohibitive. Nuclear energy can never be described as "clean" as long as it produces radioactive wastes that will pose serious human health risks (to say nothing of terrorist targets) for thousands of years. Fusion energy has a lot of potential, but after forty years of trying, it is beginning to look like it is going to be impossible to hold the sun in a bottle, even in a very big magnetic bottle.
Of all the alternative fuel options available to us only Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has the potential to replace petroleum as an energy source through the production of clean hydrogen gas to be used in hydrogen fuel cells. We need to understand that and get to work. We may already be out of time.

Why I Am Here

The purpose of this blog is to create interest in and educate web readers about the smartest and most effective source of energy available to mankind, energy that is inexhaustible, available and has virtually zero detrimental environmental effect on our planet.
Most people do not know about this energy source, and most of those who do know about it base their misconceptions on sources that are decades out of date. The purpose of this blog is to make that right.
The energy source I am writing about is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology, a technology that is currently being exploited and developed by a very small number of futuristic companies, most based in Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. The foremost of these companies is Ocean Engineering & Energy Systems in Honolulu and is run by a old friend and former college roommate of mine, Dr. Hans-Jurgen Krock.
In the course of posting this blog, I will attempt to explain, to the best of my ability, what OTEC is and why it should be considered the ONLY viable and practical replacement for the deadly fossil fuel energy catastrophe that is identified as a major culprit, if not the major culprit, in Global Warming.
In later postings I will set out the details of this energy source and will attempt to respond to every serious question posed.
With the possible exception of Population Control, there is no other issue more critical to the fate of the world we will leave our children and grandchildren. So far in this twenty-first century we have proved to be rotten stewards of this planet. We can change that. We must change that and future generations will hold us accountable for the decisions we make today and tomorrow.
Chuck Byrd