As Drs. Bharathan and Vega are acknowledged world experts of this technology, I provided the early American history of the effort, focusing on the politics and long-term potential. In 1881, Jacques d'Arsonval first proposed the concept, and his student, Georges Claude tried, but in the 1930's did not succeed in gaining a positive energy balance. I joined the staff of U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in Washington, D.C. during the heat of the Second Energy Crisis in the summer of 1979 just before Lockheed, led by Jim Wenzel, produced for the very first time, 18 net positive kW of closed cycle OTEC.
I was thus asked to help draft the first OTEC R">
"In the early to mid-1980's Paul Yuen (right") and I, as dean of engineering and director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, respectively, gained the assistance of Senator Matsunaga, Japanese Counsel General in Honolulu Mitsuro Donowaki, Governor of Hawaii George Ariyoshi and President of the University Hawaii Fujio Matsuda in creating the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, a partnership to develop pre-commercial sustainable enterprises for the Pacific area. Over the decade of my activity with PICHTR, I helped develop 37 million open-cycle OTEC and 25 million methanol from biomass gasification projects.
Two anecdotes in particular are worthy of mention:
"1. During the mid-80's I visited Tokyo a number of times, giving speeches at various universities and government agencies about PICHTR. One meeting in particular was key, for Professor Yasuo Mori of the Tokyo Institute of Technology accompanied me on a visit to Ambassador Mike Mansfield (left"). Senator Matsunaga, who was a former colleague in the Senate, had alerted Mansfield about this meeting, so the Ambassador magnanimously let us use his limousine to take us to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and, further, asked his secretary to call that office to announce our arrival. We were royally welcomed by a host of officials, taken to a conference room, where the director of Second North American Desk scolded us for twenty minutes.
Essentially, he said we were doing this all the wrong way, and what we had to do was ask President Ronald Reagan to tell Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone that our countries should work together on this project. Before I could ask any questions, he stormed out of the room and the meeting was over.
"Luckily, the assistant, Shinichi Nishimiya (left, who is today the Japan Ambassador and Counsel General to New York Cit"y), was present, and he asked that we later meet to discuss this matter. On the ride back to the American Embassy, I was distraught, but Professor Mori was in awe and ecstasy. This is where experience and cultural differences come into play. Mori said this was the first meeting he had ever been in with a Japanese government official where he told us exactly what to do. But, sure, what were the odds of a Democratic senator getting a Republican President to do anything? Anyway, I did have a long three hour lunch with Nishimiya and briefed him on the effort.
A few months later, in 1986, Senator Matsunaga, a Democrat, voted with the Republicans on a free trade bill. President Ronald Reagan rewarded Matsunaga by asking him to catch a ride with him to the Tokyo G8 Summit. Matsunaga's administrative assistant called me and asked what favor should Matsunaga ask of the President. I indicated OTEC and PICHTR would be ideal.
"On Air Force One (the plane itself is now at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley") Matsunaga wanted to ask the President to support a U.S.-Japan project on OTEC, but Donald Regan guarded the door to the President's area. When Regan went to the restroom, Matsunaga knocked on the door. Nancy answered, and Ronald was putting on his pants, but they told him to please come in. Matsunaga gave them a book of proverbs and asked the President to please support the OTEC/PICHTR project. Returning, Donald Regan was in controlled fume about the nerve of Matsunaga to bother the President.
"Unfortunately, Reagan was already showing symptoms of dementia, but fortunately, National Security Agency head John Poindexter (right") was present. His grandfather was a former governor of Hawaii ("in fact, he was the governor who telephoned President Franklin D. Roosevelt about 7December1941 attack"), and with a wink, Poindexter indicated to Matsunaga that he would follow-through. Surely enough, in the meeting with Nakasone, the first item on the agenda was the PICHTR OTEC project. They agreed in principle to cooperate. The interpreter was Shinichi Nishimiya, who, when he returned to his office, wondered what to do, as no money and period were mentioned. So he arbitrarily wrote in his report that Japan would provide a million dollars/year for eight years towards the PICHTR OTEC project. Every penny was awarded.
"2. Just around this time, Louis Rotundo (left") of the Florida Solar Energy Center "(FSEC") and I met with Len Rogers, director of ocean/wind programs of the Department of Energy at Trader Vic's in D.C. Without much ado, Len told us that he would be shutting down the OTEC program because the government had done all it could and it was now up to the private sector to commercialize it. Out of nowhere, Louis, who is a history major and noted authority on obscure battles of World War II, blurted out, what about open-cycle OTEC ("Louis drove a red Ferrari and later became chairman of the board of FSEC, so there was that something special about him"). This was not planned, but I knew enough to convince Len that this was worth a shot, and more so, I could get Japan to cost-share. No one knew anything about open-cycle, so PICHTR scooped up all the OTEC funds for the next decade and succeeded with their 40 kW ("net") OC OTEC project in 1992. It remains the last and largest OTEC project to attain net positive.
I mostly harped on OC OTEC because all the work since the mid-90's had only been on CC OTEC, a technology that has yet to be tested at larger sizes. It is possible that half to five MW OC OTEC projects could well be readied for major island resorts and military bases faster than any CC OTEC system. ("Possibly, Dr. Bharathan will someday host a workshop on the commercialization of OC OTEC".)
I then observed that OTEC electricity would be very expensive for some time to come, and the bridge to the future needed to be paved with co-products. Thus, the Blue Revolution could well be a necessary stage towards 1000 MW OTEC grazing plantships. Blue Revolution Hawaii has proposed the Pacific International Ocean Station to serve as the international platform to integrate next generation fisheries, marine biomass plantations, global warming neutralization and hurricane remediation studies and the like. The International Space Station, soon to be abandoned, is reported to have cost 150 billion. We believe only one percent of this sum, or 1.5 billion, could achieve all the necessary objectives.
Click on Desikan Bharathan ("lef"t) for a PowerPoint presentation similar to what he provided in Denver.
Click on Luis Vega ("right") for an overview on the subject. His primary wish was for a one-stop permitting system. Also, consistent funding.
With a reported 3,000 conferees, the World Renewable Energy Forum was:
PRESENTED BY
WORLD RENEWABLE
ENERGY NETWORK
SPONSORS
KILOJOULE SPONSORS
JOULE SPONSORS
PROMOTIONAL SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS
MEDIA SPONSORS
Well, I need to eat, so for lunch I felt compelled to taste some buffalo, and went to Ted's Montana Grill and had a buffalo chili, salt/pepper onion rings and Caesar salad:
I also had my most enjoyable meal of the entire trip with Pam and Stan Bull, both of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. We went to dinner at Mizuna, named after that arugula-like vegetable used in Japanese ozoni soup on New Year Year's morning. The restaurant, however, was distinctly French, and outstanding.
We had their five course special with wine. I had:
Sweetbreads with a 2010 Neyevs Chardonnay:
Endive salad with a 2010 Dr. L. Riesling-Mosel:
Sea bass with Chamisal Chardonnay:
Steak with an Arcturus Cabernet:
There were fancier names to each dish, but we were too busy talking for me to bother with this detail. We each then had a late bottled vintage Port with a dessert I don't even remember for I was supersaturated at that point:
Yes, it was a wonderful meal and I thank Pam and Stan for a truly terrific experience. Maybe they'll join me on my next global adventure.
P.S. I bought Facebook at 41 today. Also, Harry Olson ("former Spark Matsunaga Fellow at the University of Hawaii") and Andy Trenka ("he guided the OTEC and biofuels projects for PICHTR") had lunch with me today at Panzano's.
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