Imagine a vast source of energy as clean as wind power but without the NIMBY factor of wind farm projects like the one in Cape Cod. The source? South Florida’s Gulf Stream.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) recently established Florida Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology are working on a pilot project that would plant test turbines on the ocean floor about 50 meters underwater. The turbines will be placed in the path of the Gulf Stream, a powerful current that flows through the Florida Straits. That current promises to be a massive source of potential energy to Florida residents and businesses: it surges through the ocean at a rate of more than eight billion gallons per minute. That’s more than 30 times the total flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers.
This isn’t the first time anyone’s tried to tap the power of the Gulf Stream, but it is the most realistic and ambitious test yet. Past experiments have depended on simulations, lab tests or short-term turbine deployments that lasted only a few hours. That leaves a lot of unknowns to sort out yet, like how well the turbines will actually perform or what impacts the project might have on the underwater environment. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center plan to study the effects on marine life, although the turbines are expected to move too slowly to harm any creatures.
Slow, though, doesn’t mean wimpy. The power of the Gulf Stream is expected to generate as much energy as a wind turbine would produce in a 55 mile-per-hour gale. That means each undersea turbine could produce up to three megawatts of power: enough to supply the energy needs of 500 homes.
Another plus for Gulf Stream energy comes from the current’s lower regions, which are made up of cold water flowing from the Arctic. FAU researchers say that chilly flow could be tapped to drive air-conditioning, which currently accounts for up to 45 percent of Florida’s residential electricity consumption.
Rick Driscoll, who directs the Florida Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology, says Gulf Stream energy could supply all of Florida’s energy needs … without aggravating global warming or creating any pollution. It could also create thousands of jobs for the state and provide the power needed to produce potable water, a much-needed resource for the fast-growing, drought-plagued state.
Clean energy, energy independence, jobs and no negative environmental impact? It all sounds almost too good to be true. I’m hoping that Driscoll and his colleagues at FAU can prove that’s not the case.
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Shirley Siluk Gregory
Shirley Siluk Gregory, a transplanted Chicagoan now living in Northwest Florida, represents the progressive half of Green Options' Red, Green and Blue segment. She holds a bachelor's degree in Geological Sciences from Northwestern University but graduated in 1984, just when the market for geologists was flatter than the Florida landscape. Just as well, though: she had little interest in spending her life either in a laboratory or, heaven forbid, an oil field. So, of course, she went into journalism. After extremely low-paying but fun and educational stints at several suburban Chicago weeklies and dailies, Shirley and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Scott found themselves displaced by a media buyout and spending the next several years working as freelancers. Among their credits: The Chicago Tribune, a publication for the manufactured-housing industry, and Web Hosting Magazine, a now-defunct publication that came and went with the dotcom era. Shirley's always been concerned about nature and conservation (and an avid pack-rat, as her family can attest to), but became even more rabidly interested in the environment primarily due to two factors: the growing signs that global warming was real and threatening, and the birth of her son, Noah, in 2003. Suddenly, the prospect of a world that might not be quite as habitable in 40 or 50 years took on a whole new, and personal, meaning. Living where she lives now also helped light the fire of Shirley's environmental awareness: her hometown was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and beaten up again by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. That, and the fact that she and her family were vacationing in New Orleans until the day before Katrina -- and spent 12 hours driving home for a trip that normally takes 3 -- has made Shirley deeply appreciate how fragile our lifestyles are, and how dependent they are on sound management of natural resources and sustainable living practices. That's why she's become a passionate reader and writer about all things green and sustainable.
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