Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"...being predictive, being right about the future, is not the point of any given story or novel. The point is about exploring as wide a range of possibilities as possible."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Oceanic Thermal Energy Converter | ||
| A device that uses the sea to help create electricity. |
This novel provides a fully realized version of a technology that is only just being explored today; on an average day, the tropical seas of Earth absorb solar energy equivalent to 250 billion barrels of oil.
| The immense grid of the Oceanic Thermal Energy Converter appeared above them. Distantly the announcer discussed the OTEC generators and how power for Xanadu - and for export in the form of methane and liquid hydrogen - was extracted by harvesting the ocean's heat differential. Engineering geeks .. clustered in fascination. |
| From Saturn's Race,
by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes). Published by Tor in 2000 Additional resources -
|
Harvesting thermal energy from the ocean was first proposed in 1881 by Jacques Arsene d'Arsonval, a French physicist. The first demonstration unit to produce real net power was a closed-cycle plant in Hawaii; it created 15 kWe of net power.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a real technology in the process of being developed:
"OTEC, or ocean thermal energy conversion, is an energy technology that converts solar radiation to electric power. OTEC systems use the ocean's natural thermal gradient—the fact that the ocean's layers of water have different temperatures—to drive a power-producing cycle. As long as the temperature between the warm surface water and the cold deep water differs by about 20°C (36°F), an OTEC system can produce a significant amount of power. The oceans are thus a vast renewable resource, with the potential to help us produce billions of watts of electric power."
(from the National Renewable Energy Lab's OTEC page.)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 7 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Saturn's Race
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Tech news articles related to Saturn's Race
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
| Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit |
| SunnyFive 'Window' Has Full Spectrum Angled Natural Light |
| Liftware Level, Google's Smart Spoon |
| Prufrock The Newest Boring Machine |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling...'
'... filling their great tanks with the finely divided dust which the ionic rockets would spit out in electrified jets.'
'In the napcap a client became an instant yoga master...'
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...'
'Jeremiah is a sports-model to begin with and that kind is awfully hot-tempered.'
'If anything can glue the asteroids back into the planet they once were, magnology will do it.'
A cooling unit had to be strapped to every commuter's back, by law.
'...lined with durite, that strange close-packed laboratory product.'
'He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him...'
