Marine Electronics
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With Greenfix Energy’s OASIS solar island technology, the day may come when you will recharge your hybrid electric boat miles offshore and then replenish your water supply there as well. Greenfix Energy, Inc. reports that its OASIS technology, based on solar and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology, will offer more than solar island technology alone. According to Greenfix, its OASIS technology will significantly reduce the cost of floating solar energy plants and have the capacity to produce fresh distilled water.
Greenfix indicates that combining its solar technology with OTEC technology would drop ocean energy utility plant building costs nearly five fold. The company estimates that it could build such an OASIS plant, 1 to 3 square kilometers in size, for just $200 million. This compares to $1 billion Greenfix places on the cost of the solar island design presently under development through CSEM, one of Switzerland’s premier research organizations, and its spin-off, Nolaris. That 250 kilowatt solar island, which was started in 2007, is being built in the United Emirates, specifically the Ras Al-Khaimah Emirate located in the Middle East.
Although solar thermal and panel technology has been commercially viable for some time, OTEC has just turned that corner. To date, according to Lockheed Martin, a $49 billion conglomerate, ocean thermal energy has been proven and is currently in use in Hawaii, Bora Bora, Stockholm and Ottawa.
OTEC technology, which has been a research area at Lockheed Martin since the 1970s, has been avoided as a mainstream energy resource. Reasons include extremely high capital investment costs and the inability to get an economically viable working prototype. What has always made the technology attractive though, is the claim that OTEC technology has the potential to provide the entire world’s energy needs.
With such potential and economic viability in sight, the United States government has become more active in OTEC technology development. In March of 2010, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) gave a $1 million grant to Lockheed Martin to advance the commercialization of OTEC. As part of that grant, Lockheed Martin is to develop a tool that generates ocean thermal energy maps, that is, maps that pinpoint where the coldest and warmest regions of the ocean meet. That grant is on top of a previous $8.12 million award that Lockheed received in 2009 from the United States Department of Defense (DOD). The DOD grant is for the development of an OTEC pilot plant.
GreenFix, which is currently in the process of lobbying for federal government and investor funding, has selected Brad Listerman as its CEO. Mr. Listerman is credited with forming one of the first online investment banks, NetStreetFinancial. Richard Henderson, the inventor of the solar island technology, is CTO of the company.
