Energy Crisis

The Energy Depletion Era? is upon us and the next generation will live in an economic environment very different than was our experience - since our extraordinary rate of consumption in but one generation has already brought us to the cusp of a dilemma. The Hot Climates will suffer to a greater extent within our urban areas because of the Heat Island Effect? of these Grey Zones?. This crisis is typified by the situation in California and if the people of California could awaken to the Blue Green solution so close at hand, then this leadership would turn the tide and reverse the trends that threaten to destroy our future.

Here is the wake up call:

THE CALIFORNIA COLD RUSH “An off-shore clean energy discovery of unlimited potential”

I am Richard Nelson, Inventor of the Sola Roof technology for the construction of sustainable homes and communities. You can review the scope of this ecology conscious building system at http://www.solaroof.org where we have established a Sola Roof Wiki to bring to families and communities, worldwide, the Blue Green Revolution - which uses Ocean (or Lake) Source Cooling to provide a sustainable development concept that has the potential, as a single strategic initiative, to meet all of our national and international environmental goals - including a method for sustainable water resource management that is applicable to most coastal communities around the world.

The Lake Source Cooling (LSC) project at Cornell University is a replacement and upgrade of the central campus chilled water system with a more environmentally sound design that conserves energy and utilizes a renewable resource, the deep cold waters of nearby Lake Cayuga. Cornell has installed a 63" diameter pipe about 2 miles long into the lake to get 20,000 tons "coolth" (air-conditioning equivalent). Here is how they do it: http://www.utilities.cornell.edu/LSC/default.htm. They have the numbers on the cost benefit and have studied it very well. There is no mystery here - the savings are enormous (80% for Cornell) and the payback is typically 3 years - but if you have more accessible cold water resources (as does the whole Pacific Coast of the US) then the payback can be as short as one year. Get in touch with Makai Ocean Engineering, Inc. of Waimanalo, Hawaii (visit their Website at http://www.makai.com/p-swac.htm) who have been the contractor for this and other Sea Water Air-Conditioning Projects.

Ocean Source Cooling can be exploited through the same technology approach as used in LSC systems. I refer you also to the Website of the Common Heritage Corporation, (http://www.aloha.com/~craven/allabout.html) located at Keahole point in Kona, Hawaii. Dr. Jack R. Davidson, CEO, said of the potential in California "The potential saving of electricity and environmental costs are enormous even with long cold ocean supply lines. In the case of communities like Santa Cruz and Santa Clara it may be available at a fraction of the costs since these long pipes would not be needed." Once you pay off the capital cost of the pipelines, pumping station and heat-exchanger system you then have almost free energy for 75 to 100 years to come.

The best way to introduce any new breakthrough is to go for the easiest targets where the pay-off is the best you can find. Californians must wake up to the potential of the new California Cold Rush! Just off-shore is an unlimited clean energy resource - a multi-billion dollar opportunity! Here is the opportunity of a win for the economy and a win for the environment.

How do I get this across? Cold ocean water is free off-shore energy that is 10x more energy efficient and 30x cleaner than the present electricity powered air-conditioning. Think about it - we make electricity at the coast (using the cold water as a heat sink for 70% of the WASTE energy produced by a thermal power plant) in order to produce electrical power to use to indirectly cool the buildings (by making cold-water and/or cold-air, on-site). So, the utility is indirectly selling the cold sink (of the ocean) to you as electricity - at a great cost to you, the environment and our air quality.

Like Gandhi going to the ocean to make salt - bold initiatives are needed to overcome any and all artificial barriers to the use of cold ocean water for district cooling in California - for all of its benefits (A number of other scholars and environmentalists also consider criticism of lake source cooling to be unsupported by the evidence. Here are excerpts from their recently published comments: http://www.utilities.cornell.edu/LSC/Mailer/Comments.htm) - and to demonstrate leadership in the sustainable development of the tropics and subtropics.

I invite you visit http://www.solaroof.org to help establish a worldwide Grass Roots initiative to provide the Blue Green solutions to families and communities and empower them to BUILD a sustainable future - Richard Nelson