The work of Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, and other 19th century greats established the science of Thermodynamics, the most solidly based of any experimental science.

One conclusion of Thermodynamics is that any temperature difference can be used to produce useful energy. Seizing upon this idea, Jacques-Arsène D'Arsonval first proposed that the immense energy stored in the ocean thermal gradient could be used to produce electric power.

D'Arsonval's student, Georges Claude, actually built a small working plant off of Cuba in 1930, and his attempt to build a larger one was defeated by a severe storm.

Claude's design used water vapor itself to run a turbine, an approach that abandoned the closed cycle concept of the original idea of his mentor, D'Arsonval.

In 1950’s Norwegian-American engineer Bryn Beorse [a dear personal friend of mine, see http://www.towardtheone.com/shamcher/ and http://uprm.edu/aceer/pdfs/shamcher.pdf] and Professor Everett D. Howe founded the Sea Water Conversion Laboratory at University of California and obtained government funds for research. An open-cycle plant was proposed for water desalination, but government was not receptive. [Source: http://www.offinf.com/OIACohemis2K8.pdf]

In 1962, not long after Bryn Beorse failed to get government funding, another engineer [also a dear personal friend of mine], J Hilbert Anderson, along with his son, also an engineer, began a quest for a practical design for a machine that would produce electricity from the ocean thermal gradient. They founded a company, Sea Solar Power to bring their technology to fruition. Some years ago, I was privileged to be a co-author with J Hilbert Anderson of the two longest and most comprehensive publications on the subject to that date.

[Sea Thermal Power: Competitive Electricity and Chemical from the Sea; J Hilbert Anderson and David F Mayer; Advances in Energy Systems and Technology, Vol 2; Peter Auer, ed; Academic Press; &

Sea Thermal Power; J Hilbert Anderson and David F Mayer; Energy: Present and Future Options; David Merrick and Richard Marshall, eds; John Wiley & Sons]

The Andersons advanced the concept in their spare time on a shoestring budget, paid for almost exclusively out of the profits from their engineering firm. They invested several million dollars and finally brought out a truly practical project.

The Anderson design is the first and only design in the field capable of making electric power at competitive prices. It depends upon several new technologies, most importantly, the high efficiency, compact heat exchangers that the Andersons developed. The performance that they claimed, about 8 times as high as any other heat exchangers ever made before, was so outrageous that the Department of Energy refused to come out to see their operating heat exchangers in their heat exchanger test facility. Fortunately, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Maryland was not so incredulous, and did come out and see their heat exchangers in operation and inspect their apparatus completely, so as to certify the claims in performance claimed by the Andersons. Needless to say, this certification has been completely ignored by the Department of Energy. I have held the remarkable heat exchange surfaces in my own hands, which has been done by fewer than a dozen humans so far.

It is my firm belief, based on a very detailed and intimate knowledge of the technology, that the Anderson technology is ready to produce electric power at a lower cost than any current alternative for a new plant. It is high time that somebody actually got around to funding them.

See also: http://www.clubdesargonautes.org/energie/chiles.pdf

David F Mayer