Dominic Michaelis. Could sea power solve the energy crisis? Daily Telegraph.. 26/09/2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/08/scienergy108.xml

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is an idea based on the work of Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval who thought of using the sea as a giant solar-energy collector.. The theory is simple: OTEC extracts energy from the difference in temperature between the surface of the sea (up to 29C in the tropics) and the waters at 500 fathoms, which are typically a chilly 5C. This powers a 'heat engine': a refrigerator in reverse, in which a temperature difference creates electricity.Efforts to develop a practical version of d'Arsonval's concept had to be abandoned due to poor weather and a lack of funds but a modern equivalent would meet much of the world's energy needs, without generating polluting clouds of carbon and sulphur dioxide. It could also produce vast quantities of desalinated water to be shipped to parched areas of the world such as Africa.