Harvard Political Review: ‘There Is Not Any Other Renewable Energy that Can Compare with OTEC’

Now we’re getting somewhere – back to our roots and some serious attention for ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). Although we support renewable energy in general to address Hawaii’s energy crisis, this blog’s core purpose from the beginning has been to create some buzz around OTEC.

We launched on 3/14/08, the day oil hit a new record high price of $111 per barrel. We felt with oil that high, OTEC would be seen as an economically viable alternative to fossil fuel generation of electricity. If it was true then, it's truer now; oil closed today just short of $137/barrel, or 23 percent above where it stood three months ago.

Ivy League Takes Note

So it’s not surprising that OTEC is getting more attention. Today’s coverage is in the Harvard Political Review, which calls itself “America’s preeminent undergraduate journal of politics and public policy.” The headline at the top contains a quote from the HPR’s OTEC article in its Spring 2008 edition. While the column covers ground familiar to OTEC supporters, it’s encouraging to see the technology getting wider press than heretofore.

And not all of it is rosy; you can listen to a Podcast here at Renewable Energy World.com that touches on OTEC’s environmental unknowns. But whatever the outlook, if they’re talking about OTEC, they’re talking about Hawaii’s energy future, and that has to be good.