TY - RPRT
TI - An Overview of Ocean Renewable Energy
AU - Barry, C
AU - Kamen, P
AB - For  at  least  a century, innovators have looked  on  wind,  waves,  tides, warm ocean waters, marine organisms  and the salt in the  sea  as  potential sources  of  energy.  More recently, even use of heat from marine vulcanism has been suggested.   Although there have  been any number  of  creative technologies  invented to exploit these resources  and  numerous trials, these sources  have  only  provided  a miniscule amount  of energy.   Much of the reason  for this has been  the  relatively low cost  of competing forms  of energy, especially fossil fuels. Concerns  about carbon  dioxide and  global warming  and  the security and  long  term availability  of fossil fuel supplies has led  to  greatly renewed  interest in all forms  of renewable  energy.  The  current administration  has emphasized its  interest  in renewable energy  both  as  a replacement  for  fossil  fuels  and as  a job  creation engine, and is  providing  vastly  increased  funding  for all  forms  of renewables, so  the  time may have come  for  ocean renewable energy  as  well. This paper presents a  basic review of the  technology  of each  of the  major sources  including wave conversion,  fixed  and floating wind turbines, free flowing  current turbines,  ocean thermal energy, salinity gradient  and  marine  biofuels, and  discusses the magnitudes  of  each  of  the resources,  and the  particular technical issues  each technology is  facing.   A history of some notable historic efforts is  presented and  specific current efforts  are  discussed. However,  many of the  key issues of ocean renewable energy  do  not involve the technology  of the conversion devices, but how ocean renewable energy  sources relate to the overall system of energy, the environment,  public  policy and the  practical  and  business  issues  of  introducing such  radical new systems into the existing energy  and  marine industries. 
DA - 2006/01//
PY - 2006
SP - 26
PB - US Coast Guard
UR - http://www.ascension-publishing.com/BIZ/OceanEnergy.pdf
LA - English
KW - Marine Energy
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Human Dimensions
ER -