The Center for American Progress reports:
Very few people [...] think of the oceans as a vast source of renewable heat that can be used to keep homes warm and showers steaming. But that's exactly what a growing number of seaside towns in northern Europe are doing, despite having some particularly chilly ocean water.
Harnessing just a tiny fraction of the heat stored in the world's oceans has theoretically been possible for many years, but has only recently been put into practice. One of the first places in the world to draw on the ocean for residents' heating needs is Duindorp, a small harbor town near the Hague in the Netherlands.
The project began nearly a decade ago, as 1,200 cramped fishermen houses dating back to 1915 were taken down in town to make room for 800 new homes that met modern standards for affordable housing in the Netherlands.
"Residents wanted their homes to be heated using renewable energy," said Paul Stoelinga, senior consultant at Dutch environmental engineering firm Deerns International, which designed Duindorp's current heating system. "But how to offer that for low-income residents was a problem. Technologies like solar panels were just too expensive and wouldn't produce enough energy in this region." District heating using seawater turned out to be the most affordable solution, insuring no resident would have to pay more than the national average of EUR70 (about $94) a month for heat and hot water.
While deeply connected to the sea, Duindorp seems like an unlikely place to take advantage of heat in the oceans. The birds skimming over the choppy harbor are mostly cormorants, familiar cold-weather birds that proclaim the fact that the water here is hardly warm. For most of the winter, the temperature in the harbor is right around 35 to 40° Fahrenheit, although in summer it can climb to near 70° Fahrenheit. The system is based on a district heating plan, which is quite common in Europe, but only recently starting to catch on in the U.S. District heating systems warm water at a central location and then distribute it through a system of underground pipes. None of the water in the pipes is used directly in homes, but the heat from the water is skimmed off and used to warm showers and floors.
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New research has found that oceans play a vital role in moderating climate on Earth-like planets.
Until now, computer simulations of habitable climates on Earth-like planets have focused on their atmospheres. But the presence of oceans is vital for optimal climate stability and habitability.
The research team from UEA's schools of Mathematics and Environmental Sciences created a computer simulated pattern of ocean circulation on a hypothetical ocean-covered Earth-like planet. They looked at how different planetary rotation rates would impact heat transport with the presence of oceans taken into account.
Prof David Stevens from the school says "The number of planets being discovered outside our solar system is rapidly increasing. This research will help answer whether or not these planets could sustain alien life. We know that many planets are completely uninhabitable because they are either too close or too far from their sun. A planet's habitable zone is based on its distance from the sun and temperatures at which it is possible for the planet to have liquid water. But until now, most habitability models have neglected the impact of oceans on climate."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:29AM
> An extensive series of filters throughout the intake system ensures that no sea life is sucked into the plant
That is most certainly a major over-simplification. Biofouling is a huge, unsolved problem whenever we pump sea-water around.
Well, "unsolved" isn't quite the right word for it. Maybe "a constant pain in the ass" would be more accurate. They must have some sort of redundancy or heat storage because the typical way to handle biofouling is to shut the pumps off and run a cleaning/sterlization solution through them. Like for a whole day once a week or more. If you don't do that, you get tiny little sea creatures that attach themselves to all of the surfaces that contact the sea water. And they keep growing and growing and growing until they clog it up.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:50AM
An alternative is to use sealed piping and make use of the conductive surface. Just heat the surface to some very hot temperature often enough to fry all life..
Or use three duplicate systems where only two are needed for sustained operation. Add some scraping underwater robot.. enjoy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @04:30AM
> Just heat the surface to some very hot temperature often enough to fry all life..
That's really hard to do when that surface is immersed in a gigantic heat sink. Especially for a surface the size of this one.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday July 27 2014, @05:35AM
Exactly.
Friends in Alaska were using a closed loop sealed pipe ocean source heat pump system 20 years ago.
There was never a issue of fouling and the biggest worry was some random fisherman dropping anchor on his loop.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:31AM
Why do low-income people have any income at all? That money should be going where it belongs: into the investment accounts of rich people! Poor people don't deserve income because they're not rich people.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:38AM
Yawn.
You dolts who post stuff like this to be "ironic" and "insightful" really are pretty tiresome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:40AM
Dolts?! How dare you suggest there's more than one of us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:47AM
Totally agree. Idiots of all persuasions posting tedium doesn't help anyone except the posters who feel smug about their low-quality insight.
(Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:52AM
Your insight on this subject is of such high quality that I have no choice but to agree with everything you say because you're the popular one and I want to be popular like you. I desperately want to subscribe to your newsletter so I can jizz all over it.
(Score: 2) by lx on Sunday July 27 2014, @05:35AM
Considering it's the weekend, it's probably someone bored and drunk-posting. (followed by some drunk-modding as well) Better ignore it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday July 27 2014, @05:31AM
So a sea temperature at 1.7 - 4.4 Celsius with summer peak at 21 Celsius. So remember that for every useful heating watt there's a requirement for something like 1/4 watt of electrical energy from coal, nuclear, wind, solar etc.. (COP [wikipedia.org]). In addition the pump lasts like 10-20 years.
There is something to gain but the setup has some costs that may not be visable at first.
Long term it may affect the thermal sea circulation patterns if gets really popular.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday July 27 2014, @07:36AM
Although it is technically correct that they are extracting heat from the nearly-freezing ocean, I think most people would really better visualize it as dumping the "cold" into the ocean, like a great big heat sink.
I really have to wonder if this is economical. In the US, natural gas is inexpensive enough, modern condensing boilers are extremely efficient, and converting fuel into electricity and distributing it has high enough losses, that efficient heat-pumps still aren't quite as economical as more traditional natural gas heating systems. Although the flexibility of split heat-pump systems that don't need ducts, might have some appeal.
And I don't see any explanation in TFA for why doing this with seawater has any advantage over local ground or water sources for the heatpumps involved. Bulldozing out a nice big chunk of the yard 20 ft deep, then inserting loops of pex for heat exchange is the more popular method in the US.
This has been done with lakes elsewhere, before. In the US, it's typically primarily for cooling instead of heating, though:
http://energyandsustainability.fs.cornell.edu/util/cooling/production/lsc/ [cornell.edu]
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @08:28AM
> efficient heat-pumps still aren't quite as economical as more traditional natural gas heating systems
In the south-east US, like Atlanta and Research Triangle, where air temps rarely get below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, even air-source heat pumps are more cost-efficient than natural-gas based condensing boilers. These guys are talking about a water-source heat-pump which is already more efficient than air, and a worst-case water temp of 35 degrees.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday July 27 2014, @12:03PM
There's a political component where in the USA, buying natgas produced in the USA, has no strings attached, but .eu in general, even the former exporter .uk, is now a net importer of natgas, mostly from .ru, and every BTU of Russian natgas comes with political strings attached.
(Score: 0) by lx on Sunday July 27 2014, @12:47PM
Small pedantic point:
They are using the sea and not the ocean. To reach the nearest ocean from the Hague you'd have to go 500 kilometers to the southwest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @01:43PM
You dolts who post stuff like this to be "ironic" and "insightful" really are pretty tiresome.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday July 27 2014, @05:38PM
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zh.html
or this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ports_and_harbours_of_the_Atlantic_Ocean#Netherlands
(Which admittedly do contradict each other when it comes to the Baltic, but they are at least consistent with regard to the north-sea.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Sunday July 27 2014, @09:19PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @01:40PM
wow this really got my panties in a knot.
fyi i'm more used to cooling heat-pumps for my benefit.
nevertheless i read up on wikipedia and it seems if what is required is "heat"
for my benefit, then i actually want "hot" ocean water.
so i think the most best way to go about this is to actually burn natural gas
in a ICE at low income house, which will mechanically drive the heat-pump compressor.
to cool the ICE we would use the ocean water which would get warmer which would
help the compressor ...
the whole part with electricity involved was getting me all cross eyed : )
sounds all "green" to me!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @01:58PM
obviously solar is to "expensive" (whatever that means).
so the lynch-pin is extracting as much work from natural-gas burning.
a ICE at home is less "productive" at this endeavor then a super-high tech central turbine plant.
so this extracted productivity can actually force the heat-pump compressor to do more in case a high-tech turbine is involved : )
on the other hand, if a new type of smallish ICE could be discovered (to turn a heat-pump compressor only) then indeed burning natural gas at home would do away with conversion losses to (easily transported) electricity.