Reply #9: The amount of power we can use... [View All]

...is miniscule compared to the amount of excess heat energy that is there. Now I suppose that if we turned it into high frequency light and beamed it off the planet, or used it to sequester carbon, we could possibly do so usefully in respects to global warming. However, where the heat that we cannot turn into electricity goes is a big problem (heat pollution of cold sinks), and given the very small temperature differential, you would only be able to extract a very small percentage of the heat.

I am very leary of strategies that involves injecting waste heat into the lower waters. Noone knows what this will cause WRT killing organisms that live down there (likely it would be a scenario like red tide where an algae or something takes over.)

(You do know, by the way, that you cannot operate a heat exchanger without warming up your cool sink, right? Though the total amount of heat left in the result is reduced, your cool sink would still be warmed up.)

As far as shielding from hurricanes, wave and tidal probably won't unless we were to integrate them into a barrage system that doubled as a levy, which would help with the surge. Enough windmills might sheild a small area behind them from surface winds, though.