The Solar Ocean Energy Liaison

NSU Works

Volume 6, Number 12 (December 1982)

Nova Southeastern UniversityNSUWorksThe OTEC Liaison NSU Digital Collections12-1-1981Volume 5, Number 12 (December 1981)The Solar Ocean Energy LiaisonFollow this and additional works at: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/nsudigital_otec-liaisonPart of the Energy Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Natural ResourcesManagement and Policy Commons, Oceanography Commons, Oil, Gas, and Energy Commons,Science and Technology Studies Commons, and the Water Resource Management CommonsThis Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the NSU Digital Collections at NSUWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in TheOTEC Liaison by an authorized administrator of NSUWorks. For more information, please contact nsuworks@nova.edu.NSUWorks CitationThe Solar Ocean Energy Liaison, "Volume 5, Number 12 (December 1981)" (1981). The OTEC Liaison. Paper 52.http://nsuworks.nova.edu/nsudigital_otec-liaison/52Solar INCORPORATING The OTEC Liaison OCEAN ENERGY Liaison VOLUME 5 NUMBER 12 December 1981 US OTEC PROGRAM FINALLY RECEIVES FEDERAL FUNDING! WHAT ABOUT 1983? Obviously, the delays in the finaliza-tion of the FY 1982 OTEC budget, as well as its initial zero recommendation, are due to the Reagan Administration's policy of drastically reducing government spending. Most other federally-funded programs have also been reduced. Reagan Signs $20.8 Million Bill After eight months of practically no activity, the US OTEC program is finally under way once again. Delayed by the initial recommendation of the US De-partment of Energy (DOE) and the new Reagan Administration of zero budgeting for DOE's Ocean Systems Division, the efforts of both houses of Congress, spurred by lobbying, have resulted in a budget of $20.8 million for Fiscal Year 1982, which ends September 30th, 1982. (This final budget figure was predicted in OE's Sep-tember issue.) President Reagan signed the bill Friday, December 4th. Since the OTEC-1 test platform an-chored off Hawaii was taken off station in mid-April, progress in the US OTEC program has been virtually at a standstill. The major OTEC project pending final federal funding is the Program Opportun-ity Notice (PON) for a pilot plant, which has been designated to receive $8.8 mil-lion. Of that total, $6.3 million is ear-marked for Phase I and the commence-ment of Phase II of the pilot-plant PON for between six and eight contractors. Originally, in February of this year, nine teams responded to the PON. How-ever one team withdrew its bid in the spring, and OE understands that another team has disbanded, leaving seven teams in all. The date of the awards has not yet been set, but they are expected to take place in late January or early February 1982 at the latest. While it is believed that DOE has made its final decisions on the PON awards, a pre-award bidders' conference will be held, most likely in mid- to late January, at which the award date is expected to be announced. The Ocean Energy Council (OEC) will hold an open meeting in Washington DC either immediately before or immediately after the bidders' conference. An an-nouncement will be mailed to all OEC members, OE subscribers, and attendees of the 8th Ocean Energy Conference in the DC area. Just as this issue went to press, the OEC decided to schedule an open meeting for January 21st in Washington. That date, however, is not tied to any concurrent DOE conference. Details of the OEC meeting appear elsewhere in this issue. Breakdown of FY 1982 OTEC Budget Of the $20.8 million FY 1982 OTEC appropriation, $20.3 mi II ion is earmarked for total operating expenses, and $500,000 for capital equipment. The estimated FY 1982 activities are broken down as follows: Pilot Plant Proof of Concept Experi-ment: Complete conceptual design of pilot plants by six to eight contractors: $8.8 million. Ocean Systems Research: Conduct cold-water-pipe experiment; perform riser-cable research; continue oceanographic studies; complete disposition of OTEC-1 cold-water pipe : $8.4 million. Advanced R& 0: Perform biofouling experiments; continue with heat-exchanger tests; continue research on alternative ocean energy conversion concepts and energy-product analysis: $3 .6 million. A comparison of FY 1981 and FY 1982 DOE budget appropriations-and the rec-ommended FY 1983 request-appears in this issue. (See article titled "What About 1983?" ) But what of OTEC's future with respect to US federal funding? It was both houses of Congress that au-thorized the reduced spending for Ocean Systems for FY 1982, including $6.8 mil-lion for Phase I and the commencement of Phase II of the pilot-plant PON. And both the House Report (Number 97-177) and the Senate Report (Number 97-256) contain the following language: U The Committee does not intend that funding of the pilot-plant design compe-tition should be construed to indicate any commitment or favorable inclination to-ward funding of subsequent phases. The intention of supporting the study activi-ties to be carried out in Fiscal Year 1982 is to encourage and assist industry in pre-paring the necessary data for possible presentation to private financial institu-tions for private financing of pilot-plant construction. The Committee intends to review the results of the studies at the end of Phase II in order to decide whether further additional Federal funding for the pilot-plant program as currently structured is warranted. U Thus, despite the policies of the Admin-istration, it is clear that Congress, indicated by its committee reports, has left the op-tion open to continue federal spending for ocean systems /OTEC beyond Phases I and II of the pilot-plant PON. International activities in the OTEC field are also likely to affect future funding . The Japanese, French, and Scandina-vian OTEC programs have indicated re-peatedly during 1981 that their programs were largely dependent on what the US would do. Now that the US program has received funding, it is expected that foreign govern-ments and foreign private industry will continue if not accelerate their OTEC programs. And in turn, foreign activity may spur continued federal participation in the OTEC program in the US. In the interim, OTEC advocates both within and without the Federal Government will now begin efforts to continue funding for FY 1983, still set by the Administration and DOE at zero thus far. • Solar OCEAN ENERGY Liaison INCORPORATING The OTEC Liaison AN INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER ENGAGED AS LIAISON FOR ALL FORMS OF SOLAR ENERGY FROM THE SEA, INCLUDING: OTEC (OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION) WAVE - TIDAL - CURRENT OFFSHORE WIND - BIOMASS SALINITY GRAD1ENTS VOLUME 5 NUMBER 12 December 1981 EDITOR/PUBLISHER Richard Arlen Meyer TYPESETTER AND COPY EDITOR Shelly Treshansky ART DIRECTOR Pamela Greenfield SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Mildred Ward RESEARCH Patricia Belisonzi OCEAN ENERGY is published monthly by Popular Products Incorporated at 1303 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA. Copyright 1981 by Popular Products Incorporated, Chicago, Illinois. All rights reserved. Contents of this newsletter may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. OCEAN ENERGY will not assume any responsibility for any manuscripts or photographic material either left or submitted on speculation. Subscription prices are as listed below: United States and possessions: one year $150, two years $250. Foreign: Add $20 per year for C!ir mail. Single copies: US $12.50 per copy. Foreign $13.75 per copy. USSN: 0162-8755 Page 2 COUSTEAU AGAIN EXTOLS THE OCEANS AS AN ENORMOUS ENERGY SOURCE While <JT1any OTEC advocates remain soured on Jacques-Yves Cousteau since he failed to appear as promised at the 7th Ocean Energy Conference in 1980, the fact remains that his support of ocean en-ergy in general and OTEC in particular has aided OTEC planners worldwide. As the world's most outspoken de-fender of the environmental protection of the oceans, Cousteau has repeatedly quashed the objections of those who would slow OTEC's progress due to en-vironmental concerns. The December 1981 issue of National Geographic features a major section on "The Ocean", including "A Perspective" by Cousteau. Posing the question of whether the sea can help rnankind survive, his overview explores the potential of food production as well as energy from the sea. Included in his perspective are the fol-lowing comments: Energy: People tend to forget that solar energy is the only renewable energy resource we have. Unfortunately, it is spread thinly over the surface of the earth, which makes its recovery difficult. Solar cells or furnaces would need to be de-ployed over enormous desert areas in order to match the output of a single nuclear power plant. Luckily, we have in the ocean a natural concentrator of solar energy. Tropical cur-rents constantly bring sun-warmed surface water to areas like the Straits of Florida and the Caribbean, concentrating formi-dable amounts of energy. Two-thirds of all solar energy reach-ing the earth falls on the sea. One-third of that is reflected or degraded. Of the equivalent of 115 million nuclear plants, the total amount of solar energy striking earth, the equivalent of 20 million nuclear plants (20 million times a thousand mega-watts) is absorbed by the tropical seas alone. Pilot plants are already exploring ways of recovering this immense store of en-ergy from the heat sink of the ocean. Pumping deep cold water to the surface of warm seas would enable us to exploit the temperature difference as power. And there are many ways of translating waves and tides into power. - Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Copyright 1981 : National Geographic Society) SERI RELEASES OPEN-CYCLE REPORT The Solar Energy Research Institute (SE R I) of Golden, Colorado has released a report titled An Overview of Recent Progress on Open-Cycle OTEC Power Solar OCEAN ENERGY Systems. Th is four- page paper by Penny and Shelpuk reports on alternative thermal-cycle OTEC development, with special attention to the Claude or open cycle. Development of both turbine and direct-contact heat exchangers and critical as-pects of the deaeration of seawater in open-cycle systems are described. The report, SERI/TP-634-1218, is avail-able from the National Technical Infor-mation Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161, at $3.50 microfiche and $4 printed copy. Announcing the Eighth OPEN MEETING OF THE OCEAN ENERGY COUNCIL Thursday, January 21 st, 1982 5: 00-7: 30 pm The George Washington University Faculty Club: Kaiser and Parks Rooms Wine and Cheese - Free Admission Open Bar - Parking Nearby AGENDA OTEC STATUS REPORT: DOMESTIC Mr. Fred Naef, President, OEC OTEC STATUS REPORT: INTERNATIONAL Mr. Richard Meyer, Secretary, OEC OTEC 40MW SHELF-MOUNTED REFERENCE BASELINE DESIGN Mr. Kevin Moak and Mr. William Rogalski Gibbs and Cox OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION Kindly RSVP so that OEC can properly prepare: Fred Naef, (202) 872-5947 or Eric Midboe, (703) 979 -1240. SECOND RENEWABLE ENERGY CONFERENCE CALLS FOR SPECIAL PAPERS Papers in specified areas are now being accepted for the Second National Confer-ence on Renewable Energy Technologies, organized by the Association of Engineers and Surveyors and the Center for Energy and Environment Research of the Univer-sity of Puerto Rico as part of the 17th Convention of the Pan American Confed-eration of Engineering Studies, scheduled for August 1st through 7th, 1982, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Papers are solicited for special sessions in wind, biomass, geothermal, bioconver-sion, photovoltaics, hydroelectric, solar-thermal, and ocean-thermal energy. The deadline for 300-word abstracts is Feb-ruary 15th; notifications of selection will be sent by March 30th; and final texts of papers will be due May 15th. For further information write to Dr. Juan Bonnet Jr., Technical Director, UPADI, Puerto Rico Engineers and Surveyors Association, GPO Box 3845, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936. Liaison Chicago 60605 December 1981 • Solar Energy Energy Supply Reseatch & Development - Operating Expenses Energy Supply Research & Development - Capital Equipment & Construction (Tabular dOllars in thousands. Narrative material in whole dollars.) FY 1981 Aeeroeriation FY 1982 FY 1983 FY 1983 Aeeroeriation Base Reguest Ocean Energ~ S~stems (CE) Management Planning and Analysis ..................... $ 9,360 $ 2,100 $ 2.100 $ ° Technology Development ......... 10,600 8.300 8,300 0 Engineering Test and Evaluation. 15,820 6.300 6.300 0 Advanced R&D ..•.....•.....•...• 2,520 31 600 31 600 0 TOTAL OPERATI NG EXPENSES 38,300 20,300 20,300 0 Congressional Adjustment ..•.... -4.400* Capital Equipment .............. 700 500 SOu 0 Construction .................. 0 0 0 0 TOTAL BUDGET AUTHORITy ....... $34,600 -$"20,800 $20,800 $ 0 * Reflects recision of $4,400 accepted by Congress Authorization: P.L. 93-473 (Sec. 6) -- Solar Energy Research & Development Act. P.L. 96-310 -- OTEC Research, Development, and Demonstration Act. P.L. 96-320 -- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Act of 1980 Summary of Changes FY 82 appropriation enacted ..............•..................... Built-in increases and decreases FY 1983 base ................................................ . Program increases and decreases: o Pilot plant preliminary design cancellation .............. . o Ocean systems research termination ....................... . o Advanced R&D ............................................. . Subtota 1 ...................................................... . $ 20,800 o $ 20,800 -13,000 - 4,000 - 3,800 -20,800 FY 1983 request ................................................ $ o Solar OCEAN ENERGY Liaison Chicago 60605 December 1981 Page 3 • US GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT INVITATIONS AND CONTRACT AWARDS Listed below are procurement invita-tions and contract awards related to OTEC in particular and ocean resources in general culled from the Commerce Business Daily. This is not to be construed, however, as a complete list. Oct 27: The Distribution of Some Chemical Elements Between Dissolved and Particulate in the Ocean: Contract DE-AC-02-76-EV-03566.A007, for $60,715, awarded to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts Page 4 02543. US Department of Energy, Chi-cago Operations and Regional Office, Ac-quisition and Assistance, 9800 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439 . N~v 5 : Continued Research in the Area of Tidal Gravity Inversion: Contract NOOO-14-75-C-0605, August 25th, 1981 (no RFP), for $115,560, awarded to The Trus-tees of the Columbia University in the City of New York, Box 20, Low Memorial Li-brary, New York, New York 10027. Office of Naval Research, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, Virginia 22217. Nov 10: Assessment, Development, and Co-ordination of Technology Base Studies in Enhanced Heat Transfer: Grant DE-FG-07-811D1222, for $600,000, awarded to Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011. US Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office, 550 Second Street, Ida-ho Falls , Idaho 83401. Nov 16: Study of Ocean Science Data Characterization and Development: NASA/ GSFC intends to issue RFP 5-49019/256 for a study to identify performance capa-bilities of the Advance Location and Data Collection System (ALDCS) to ECO Sys-tems International Incorporated of Gam-bri Is, Maryland. NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, M D 20771, Attention Robert J. Frost, Code 289. Solar OCEAN ENERGY Liaison Chicago 60605 December 1981 • 

Volume 5, Number 12 (December 1981)

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Volume 5, Number 12 (December 1981)

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