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gewg_ writes:

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.