- Bitcoin gives hope to a long-forgotten renewable energy project.
- The project is the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion initiative (OTEC).
- OTEC will harness thermal energy from the oceans to ecologically fuel Bitcoin mining.
An almost forgotten 150-year old renewable technology has just come back to life. In detail, the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) initiative could just be revived to fulfill Bitcoin’s unique appetite for energy consumption.
To elaborate, Bitcoin poses the potential to help bring between 2-8 terawatts of clean, renewable, and continuously fueled energy. In fact, the year-round baseload power will be harnessed from the thermal power lying latent within the Earth’s oceans.
More importantly, this source of energy could cater to one billion people across the world. With Bitcoin (BTC) on the scene, we can use the economies of scale to turn our ocean, these giant entities, into renewable solar batteries.
How can this be done? The answer is simple, by combining the warm tropical surface water against the cold seawater below the ocean’s surface, we can create a conventional heat engine. Take this idea and turn it on a planetary scale, it will be able to meet Bitcoin’s large appetite of wanting to consume large bouts of stranded energy.
Still, there is quite a long way to go with this initiative. For now prototypes and pilot plants are the priority. Once this work is proven, Bitcoin will be doing more than just saving our financial crisis.
Adding on, by virtually harnessing unlimited quantities of cold water, we can also cool co-located ASIC miners. Thus, the OTEC may be Bitcoin’s own salvation, it will become the most efficient and ecological way for Bitcoin miners to mine Bitcoin.
The idea for the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) came in 1881. It was proposed by French physicist Jacques Arsene d-Arsonval. He said by trapping the thermal energy stores within the ocean, we can access a huge source of energy. This thought was inspired by Jules Verne’s classic novel ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea’.
