Fossil Fuel
A page where we can list and discuss all the reasons why we must make it our goal to Make Fossil Fuel History:
From: OTECNews, quoting a paper by L. A. Vega, Ph.D., Hawaii, USA
"At present, the external costs of energy production and consumption are not considered in determining the charges to the user. Considering all stages of generation, from initial fuel extraction to plant decommissioning, it has been determined that no energy technology is completely environmentally benign. The additional costs associated with corrosion, health impacts, crop losses, radioactive waste, military expenditures, employment loss subsidies (tax credits and research funding for present technologies) have been estimated to range from 78 to 259 billion dollars per year. Excluding costs associated with nuclear power, the range is equivalent to adding from $85 to $327 to a barrel of fuel oil, increasing the present cost by a factor of 4 to 16. As a minimum, consider that the costs incurred by the military, in the USA alone, to safeguard oil supplies from overseas is at least $15 billion corresponding to adding $23 to a barrel of fuel — equivalent to doubling the present cost."
The difficulty that I have with the OTEC community is that they persist in making electric power from OTEC the main focus, while clearly there are major problems, which are also not presented. The principle serious drawbacks are not discussed and other "facts" are manipulated. The real serious opportunity with OTEC relates to the wonderful Blue Green technology opportunities - mostly related to the use of deep seawater for its Cold Water Resources. When we build our homes and communities with the Open Eco Design the true value of the infinite, free cooling potential for cooling our built environment. This building cooling and lighting load is 60% of the peak load in California and it can be reduced ten times by the Blue Green solutions. Blue is for "water working" (green for "living plants") and Ocean Water Cooling is one of the most important water working systems we can use to build a sustainable future.- Sola Roof Guy