Some days at Treehugger one gets the sense of what it must have been like in the hey days of Edison and his light bulb, or Bell and his telephone. The promise of wondrous inventions that promise to ease a burden or two. Think of the more recently inspiring Sunball concentrated solar sphere and Magenn floating wind turbine. Now we bring you ocean thermal energy conversion or OTEC from Sea Solar Power International. Their idea is to take the warm water 80oF (27oC) from the tropics and pump into the depths of the ocean to a heat sink of cold water at 40oF (4oC). The difference in temperature is “sufficient to operate vapor turbines, which drive generators and produces electricity and fresh water as a byproduct.” And as they rightly point out the ocean is the worlds largest solar collector, so it seems prudent to consider this resource. Though it would appear that the US government already tried this concept a while back, albeit with little success. Sea Solar Power don’t think they had the scale of economies right. So, they are proposing a floating plantship, generating 100 MW's of net power and 32 million gallons of fresh water per day. Such a marvel is calculated to cost a mere $250 million USD. Yet unlike wind and solar technologies Sea Solar figure theirs can run 24 hours a day. Thanks to Brendan P. for bringing this tip to the surface. ::Sea Solar Power International

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