Ocean energy
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| Renewable energy |
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| Biofuel Biomass Geothermal Hydropower Solar power Tidal power Wave power Wind power |
The oceans have a tremendous amount of energy and are close to many if not most concentrated populations. Many researches show that ocean energy has the potentiality of providing for a substantial amount of new renewable energy around the world.[1]
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[edit] Renewable ocean energy
The oceans represent a vast and largely untapped source of energy in the form of fluid flow (currents, waves, and tides--also termed hydrokinetics) and thermal and salinity gradients. There are a number of approaches to extracting energy from the ocean, though most remain in the investigation or demonstration phase.
- Marine current power
- Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)
- Salinity gradient power
- Tidal power
- Wave power
Sometimes Wind power (offshore) is also included in the list of renewable ocean energies.
[edit] Theoretical potential of renewable ocean energy
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This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2008) |
The theoretical global ocean energy resource is estimated[2] to be on the order of:
- 2000 TWh/year for osmotic energy (200 GW)
- 10000 TWh/year (1 TW) for ocean thermal energy (OTEC)
- 800 TWh/year (90 GW) for tidal current energy
- 8000 – 80000 TWh/year (1 – 9 TW) for wave energy
This theoretical potential is several times greater than the actual global electricity demand, and equivalent to 4000 – 18000 MToE MToE (million tons of oil equivalent).
[edit] Non-renewable ocean energy
Petroleum and natural gas beneath the ocean floor are increasingly important sources of energy. An ocean engineer directs all phases of discovering, extracting, and delivering offshore petroleum (via oil tankers and pipelines), a complex and demanding task. Also centrally important is the development of new methods to protect marine wildlife and coastal regions against the undesirable side effects of offshore oil extraction.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Energy harvesting
- International Electrotechnical Commission
- Ocean Engineering
- Renewable energy commercialization
- European Ocean Energy Association
[edit] External links
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