Power

Electricity from the sea

Electricity can be produced from the sea in a number of ways. The most likely to be economic are wave motion and OTEC, a form of temperature shift between warm top and bottom cold water within the ocean. (see pages on left)

Solar power

Solar power can be used to create small amounts of electricity, or to create small amounts of hydrogen. It can also be a part of a larger system by providing heating to drive a heat conversion system, or used within the OTEC development.

Windmills

Wind can be used to drive large windmills or through a funnel arrangement to drive a turbine. Although changing the blade angle can regulate the speed, as can shutting off some of the overall area the air enters from, windmills are still probably the least reliable form of generation as on occasions the wind will drop. As in mid ocean in concept there would be a more reliable sea breeze than in land it may be possible to use and store some of this energy either as heat or as hydrogen. Windmills may also be able to be used where the island units are being constructed to power seacrete building units.

Storing energy

Storing electrical power can be done in a number of ways, in our situation the most viable would be by creating heat that can be converted back, or by splitting the water to hydrogen and oxygen and then using the hydrogen to drive an engine driving a generator. Hydrogen produces no pollution when run in an engine the only bi product is water vapor and heat.

On land power can be stored by pumping water to a higher point and then using the flow back to generate power when required. In the ocean this could still be done, but the amount you could store at a height is small in comparison to the size of island you would need to build to hold it, so is probably not viable.

We envisage a large amount of the spare energy being used to create hydrogen, which will be stored, therefore when electricity requirements increase the hydrogen production can be cut. With an OTEC unit there are no running costs, but high capital costs in building it, so it makes sense to run the unit at a high rate constantly.

Heat conversion

Once the kingdom is fully operating it is expected that air conditioning will want to be run as well as refrigeration to preserve food. We propose a cooling loop throughout the kingdom in sections, so that spare heat can be recovered and converted back to energy, or used in the generation or water purification process.

How we see the energy side

We see a combination system, wave motion using the air flow method, OTEC's, heat recovery and domes that can use solar power to provide extra heating for some water.

We see spare extra capacity being used to split water making hydrogen available to run engines, or for peak generator need if required. The mobile platforms New Atlantis 2 and 3 as well as the possible extra one behind the airport we expect to be powered by hydrogen engines.

We expect to produce far more hydrogen than we use and therefore see it as an export.

Also watch the books page, as an ebook on all forms of power generation from waves or the sea in general is being looked at.