Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Earth

Plumbing the oceans could bring limitless clean energy

By Phil Mckenna

19 November 2008

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Exploiting the difference in temperature between seawater near the surface and deep down could supply the world with cheap green power

(Image: Matthew Oldfield/SPL)

FOR a company whose business is rocket science Lockheed Martin has been paying unusual attention to plumbing of late. The aerospace giant has kept its engineers occupied for the past 12 months poring over designs for what amounts to a very long fibreglass pipe.

It is, of course, no ordinary pipe but an integral part of the technology behind Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), a clean, renewable energy source that has the potential to free many…

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