The Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo continued this morning with four fabulous keynotes:
Peter Boyd, COO, Carbon War Room, an organization founded by Richard Branson.
The above were followed by three OTEC sessions. I will not provide any details, for the subject matter is far beyond the interests of most of the readers of this blog.
-
Islands Keynotes:
Henk Rogers, Founder and Chairman, Blue Planet Foundation
- Hawaii spends $5 billion/year for fossil fuels
- Blue Planet wants to keep some of those dollars in Hawaii by accelerating the commercialization of renewable energy by overcoming congenital inertia.
- Want 100% energy independence for Hawaii by 2030
- Hawaii Energy Report Card:
- Overall grade is a C-
- There has been progress
- Energy efficiency efforts eclipsed new renewables in 2012
- Transportation got a D
- Jet fuel accounts for 1/3 of energy use, and nothing has been done
- It is time.
Tomoyo Nonaka, Chair, GAIA Initiative; Former Chair & CEO, Sanyo
- Former NHK TV personality
- Chairman of Sanyo (Think GAIA—changed the nature of the corporation from chasing money to thinking GAIA. Cut water usage by 80%, increased the use of rechargeable batteries, solar PV, etc. Business is for the Future.)
- Director of Asahi Brewery because she likes beer
- GAIA Initiative: Goddess of Earth
- We share the same air and are thusly all connected
- Kumejima has an OTEC 50 kW plant
- Nonaka is the Special Ambassador for Kumejima
- which she calls the Treasure Island of LIFE—the total package of byproducts for society
- Marine Environmental Creation
I was impressed by how a TV newscaster could became CEO of a major electronics company, Sanyo, and have such an incredible vision for GAIA and the Blue Revolution?
Ronald Jumeau, Ambassador for Climate change, Seychelles, and chairman of Global Island Partnership
- Republic of Seychelles (115 islands, with a total area half that of Molokai and population of 90,000)
- EEZ is more than half a million square miles around the Equator
- So small that they need to think smarter
- Smallness can be more manageable.
- Anyone with roof space can install PV to use and sell to the utility, for batteries are expensive. The people largely can’t afford it, so private enterprises rent the roof.
- Abu Dhabi provided $28 million, 6 MW wind farm installed by a South Korean firm. Seeking further funding from Abu Dhabi to use part of a man-made island for solar PV.
- Champions Blue Energy.
- Islands speaking to islands.
- Hawaii and Seychelles have common problems and can share solutions.
- He would probably give Hawaii a higher grade than D-.
- Hawaii doesn’t have $28 million to give, but does have the expertise and universities to help. .
- Carbon War Room: to accelerate the adoption of business solutions to reduce carbon emissions and advance the low-carbon economy.
- Island economies are ideal for improvement: high energy cost, generally depending on tourism.
- There is no Planet B.
The above were followed by three OTEC sessions. I will not provide any details, for the subject matter is far beyond the interests of most of the readers of this blog.
Experimental Plants & OTEC Technology
Lessons learned from the design and operation of OTEC experimental plants will be presented. Heat exchangers, turbines and working fluid for OTEC applications will be discussed.
- Yasuyuki Ikegami, Saga University, “100 kW CC-OTEC Plant and Deep Ocean water Applications in Kumejima, Okinawa, Japan”
- H. Lee, KIOST, “Cycle Analysis of Ocean Geothermal Power Generation using Multistaged Turbine”
- D. Jung, Inha University, “Rankine Cycle Working Fluids for CC-OTEC Application”
- S. Han, Seoul University of Science & Technology, “20 kW CC-OTEC Turbine Design”
- Pat Grandelli, Makai Ocean Engineering, “CC-OTEC Heat Exchangers: Performance and Power Output”
- J. Kwon, Hoseo University, “Design and Test of Tube & Shell Heat Exchangers for Potential OTEC Application”
- L. Shapiro, OTI, "Developing IPP’s for Isolated Grids: Issues and Opportunities"
Other Applications
Uses of the seawater drawn from depths of about 600 m to 1000 m for applications other than OTEC will be discussed. In addition, innovative designs of seawater conduits and pipes for OTEC and SWAC will be presented.
- H. Kim, National University of Gangneung-Wonju, “Creation of Artificial Seaweed Forest using Discharged Deep Seawater”
- D. Jung, KIOST, “OTEC CWP Conceptual Design: Large Diameter Laminated Composite Material Riser Numerical Model”
- Ted Jagusztyn, COTHERM, “Seawater Conduits for OTEC and SWAC: Drilled Hydrothermal Energy (DHE)”
- S. Kim, Dongeui University, “Seawater as a Heating and Cooling Source for Busan, Korea”
- S. Lee, Chungbuk National University, "Computational Analysis on Multiphase Flow in a Vortex Separator as Intake Device for Sea Water"
- Darryl Nakamoto, Kaiulienergy, "Kaiuli Energy's Seawater Air Conditioning Projects for Hawaii"
- Jon Lilley, University of Hawaii, “Waikiki SWAC Public Attitudes Survey”
Summary and Recommendations: Working Session
Chair: Luis Vega, University of Hawaii
Moderator: Sa-Young Hong, Korea Institute of Ocean Science
- There are no technical barriers to build a 10 MW OTEC facility
- Environmental uncertainties abound, and this could be the role for government, as studies done by developers will lack in credibility
- OTEC has taken so long to gain any traction because the technology is too expensive at the initial stages. Government and the financial sector are not equipped to provide a billion dollars for an untested concept.
- Yet, there are half a dozen firms pursuing funding for building the first major OTEC system. The size will range from 5-10 MW, and my sense is that the first one will be built in China by Lockheed Martin or the Caribbean by a range of potential sponsors.
- I expressed a personal opinion that I worried about the private sector taking on a hundred million to billion dollar effort without having government first reduce the risks. I offered the notion that the only way this technology would progress would be through the sponsorship of a billionaire or team of them convinced that the ocean was the next frontier for economic development in harmony with the natural marine environment.
TO COME, ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, WILL BE A TOUR OF THE NATURAL ENERGY LABORATORY OF HAWAII AUTHORITY (NELHA) ON THE BIG ISLAND WITH VISITS TO:
0 comments:
Post a Comment