We make Ocean Heat Pumps.
It is environmental madness to burn hydrocarbons when we are being slow-cooked by all the heat in the oceans resulting from global warming. Zero E’s Ocean Heat Pump turns this heat into an energy asset—every country with an ocean shore now has massive reserves of energy and achieve energy independence.
Zero E Technologies, Inc. is developing the Ocean Heat Pump (OHP) that will float offshore and that will extract heat from the sea. It is actually a big wind turbine that powers heat pumps that extract heat from the sea through large underwater heat exchangers. This heat is then used to melt thermal salt in big containers (the energy is stored through phase change) which is then moved by barge to district heat and cooling systems, desalination plants, or electric power plants where the heat is extracted. As the heat is extracted, the thermal salt solidifies. Then the barge of salt containers returns for more heat, repeating the process.
The economics are lucrative. The levelized cost over thirty years (capital and operating costs) is estimated at less than $0.05 per kWh of heat. The economics are driven by two factors: first, the OHP can operate in up to 160 km/h winds, a much higher speed than conventional turbines that start feathering at 53 km/h so that they don’t destruct. Over half the energy delivered by the wind each year comes in storms when conventional wind turbines are shut down in defensive mode. Second, heat pumps have a “Coefficient of Performance” of about 3.0 which means that for every kWh of electricity from the wind turbine used to drive the heat pumps, we extract 3 kWh of heat.