Utilization of the ocean’s thermal currents that naturally circulate the globe and transfer heat from the equator up to Europe to regulate the climate and provide a temperate environment as well as allow for colder waters to circulate back south from the Arctic are currently being looked at as a form of power generation. This is of particular interest off the coast of Puerto Rico near Punta Tuna and other similar locations where deep ocean currents can be reached relatively close to land and allow electrical developers to effectively utilize both hot and cold water currents for energy generation.

The driving factor behind effectively using the ocean’s currents is in the ability for electrical developers to easily use both hot surface temperatures as well as colder deep-water temperatures in order to both evaporate and subsequently condense a highly soluable material (such as propane) in a closed system in order to driver electricity generating turbines. Sinking large PVC pipes deep into the ocean in order to access the cold current, an offshore electricity generating platform would be able to regularly pump up and circulate cold water to be used in the condensation process necessary to re-condense the evaporated material while shallower surface pipes would regularly channel hot water into the evaporation chamber where the liquid would be re-evaporated and cycled back into the system. Because the system would be entirely closed as well no material would be leaked into the environment other than the natural ocean water used for heating and cooling, making such an energy generation platform both highly ecologically friendly and sustainable.

Current projections indicate that developing as few as 30 moderate sized platforms could provide enough energy for the entire country of Puerto Rico, while additional developments could easily offset energy needs in other tropical areas. While unfortunately this may not be a solution to all of the world’s energy needs due to many of the same limitations affecting these plants as geothermal energy facilities (most notably the limitation of locations as well as development costs) they can still provide a clean, reliable and efficient energy production alternative to conventional power production, especially on remote tropical islands.

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