I don't believe even 10-GW worth of marine turbines in the Florida Straits would risk a "collapse" the Gulf Stream current or threaten Europe with a deep freeze. I realize that I need to focus this question more for purposes of a constructive discussion. If marine turbines reduced the average yearly kinetic flow of the Gulf Stream by 50% from 1.70 m/sec to .85 m/sec across a 100-km bottleneck from West Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island, what effect if any would there be on the North Atlantic sea temperatures or the annual Arctic ice extent ? Are there any GCM software programs that could model the effect of 10-GW of marine turbines in the Florida Straits? Obviously the idea here is to generate electricity while potentially providing a cooling effect for the North Atlantic.
On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 5:23 PM, Andrew Lockley <[email protected]>wrote: > But if you collapse it, you'll freeze Europe... > > A > On Apr 28, 2012 9:14 PM, "Brennan Jorgensen" <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I thought that I would pose my amateur question to the experts in this >> particular discussion group in order to find out if there is in fact >> any viability to this geoengineering idea that pertains to reducing >> the kinetic flow of the Gulf Stream Current by using marine turbines. >> I currently work as a renewable energy consultant in Florida and in >> the past I have corresponded with the Ocean Engineering Department at >> Florida Atlantic University where I was informed that between West >> Palm Beach, Florida and Grand Bahama Island there is a “bottleneck” >> where the Gulf Stream current is just 60-miles (100-km) across with a >> flow rate of about 30-million cubic meters per second. With seawater >> 850-times more dense than air, a typical two meter per second current >> flow gives it the power density of a gale-force wind thus making it >> very appealing for marine turbine development. In fact, it has been >> estimated that 10-GW of power capacity could be realized using marine >> turbines while potentially slowing the kinetic/ heat transport of the >> Gulf Stream Current: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Golfstream.jpg >> . >> >> My question is this: We know that it is possible to generate at least >> 10-GW of hydrokinetic power from the Gulf Stream current in this 100- >> km “bottleneck” but could it also be theoretically possible to slow >> the rate of heat transport into the North Atlantic thus assisting in >> cooling the Arctic in a ocean-based form of geoengineering? >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "geoengineering" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
