Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Mamba
Wave Energy is being funded, developed and pretty close to being online:
|
Not to be repetitive, but... well, maybe. All of these alternative power technologies have been "funded and about to go into service" since about 1965... at least, so cover after cover of PopSci, PopMech et al. kept assuring me through my goggle-eyed tens and teens. And twenties, thirties, forties...
It's like Paul Moller's flying car, about to go on sale in showrooms everywhere since... 1962.
Quote:
|
so if we're talking about offshore desal the main issue is probably the excess salt
|
Load it on flatboats. Trundle it out into the ocean a few miles. Dump. Problem solved. It's not toxic waste; that's where it came from and as long as the water is deep enough and the dumping is spread a little, I don't think any human-scale effort could change ocean salinity a meaningful amount, even for short terms.
It all boils (heh, heh) down to a helluva lot of electrical power (or equivalent) or a helluva lot of square miles of solar/ocean/wave/wind power plants. I'd go so far as to say the only really workable option for the foreseeable future is nuclear desal.
Quote:
|
Haven't heard about towing icebergs...
|
I believe it's actually been done on small scale (UK in the 1970s?) It's actually more practical, in terms of energy used, than many alternatives. If you tow the berg to a warmish climate and park it in a giant floating drip cup, natural solar heat will keep the flow of extremely pure water coming without any hassles. But yeah, it's pretty, uh, weird.