THE PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL OCEAN STATION

On June 1-2, 2012, the Seasteading Institute hosted a gathering for a hundred conferees at the Le Meridien Hotel in San Francisco.  The proceedings are covered in Day 1 and Day 2.

A Blue Revolution Hawaii presentation was made by Patrick Takahashi on the Pacific International Ocean Station.  (Click to view.)

Among the highlights were:

  -  Potential project of the Maritime Alliance (San Diego) by William Riedy:  Portunas Project (designed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), an at-sea harbor for security and efficiency.  Michael Jones, President of the Alliance, expressed interest in a working relationship with Blue Revolution Hawaii.

  -  Blueseed's Googleplex of the Sea (left), a floating high tech office to be floated 12 miles off Half Moon Bay, California:

  -  Announcement by Patri Friedman, co-founder of Seasteading, of an $8 million, 275 foot ship to serve as the Seasteading Institute's headquarters at sea.

  -  George Petrie, Director of Engineering for Seasteading, provided a preliminary, but comprehensive, analysis of floating platforms, and suggested that a semi-submersible was the ideal conformation.  He also wants to interact with Blue Revolution Hawaii.

  -  Bob Nicholson, President of OTEC International, reported on their plans to build a 1 MW OTEC demonstration at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, and mentioned that they are continuing to negotiate with Hawaiian Electric Company for a 100 MW OTEC spar (left) on a power purchase agreement at an electricity cost in the range of $0.19/kWh.

  -  Myron Nordquist (University of Virginia, long time friend from Law of the Sea days thirty years ago) and John Briscoe (University of California, Berkeley), provided a tutorial on ocean law.  

  -  Neil Sims (below with his kampachi) wowed the audience with his presentation on mariculture.  It was 23 years ago that I convinced Neil and his wife over a bottle of Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon in Sydney to leave Australia and come to Hawaii.  I think he has long forgiven me.

  -  There were several talks on marine medical tourism, and how an offshore ship located 12 miles from the coastline would allow for a variety of treatments and medications.

  -  Marine algae also was well covered, but my follow-up discussions seemed to indicate that biofuels from algae were today very expensive, and it remains uncertain if this pathway would ever compete with conventional fuels.  However, there are various high-value product opportunities that can be pursued on these platforms.

  -  Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, President of Livefuels, discussed fuels from algae, and, in particular emphasized the matter of Peak Phosphate, and the role deep ocean fluids can play.

The Seasteading Institute was founded in 2008 by Patri Friedman (left) and Peter Thiel (right).

In case you missed this bit of Facebook's history, Thiel was the original investor, and holds 2% (now worth around $2 billion, or will when the stock price recovers someday).  The Thiel Foundation was well represented and showed interest in the Pacific International Ocean Station.

The following PowerPoint was largely developed by Guy Toyoma, and first presented by Patrick Takahashi at the the Seasteading Conference in San Francisco on June 1, 2012.

PREAMBLE:   Floating in space is the International Space Station, a $150 billion adventure which appears to be in the process of being abandoned.  For one percent the cost, say $1.5 billion, the Pacific International Ocean Station is being planned to serve as a grazing plantship powered by OTEC for a global partnership to advance the development of sustainable ocean resources in harmony with the marine environment.  Certainly marine biomass plantations and next generation plantations, but also opportunities for innovative business practices, exciting new living habitats and maybe even a Disney at Sea.

 

ANY ORGANIZATION DESIRING A PRESENTATION ON THE PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL OCEAN STATION SHOULD CONTACT ANY OF THE BOARD MEMBERS (e-mail addresses provided in the right column above).

-

2012: THE YEAR OF THE WATER DRAGON

You will note that the symbol of Blue Revolution Hawaii is the Blue Ocean Dragon positioned to the right.  This is the Year of the Dragon, but, more specifically, the Water Dragon.  The next time this happens will be in the year 2072.  

By Chinese astrology, 2012 brings a much needed year of Good Luck.  What happened in 1952, the previous year of the Water Dragon?  Elizabeth II became Queen of England, while London suffered through a killer smog (and coined the smoke/fog term),  the first Hydrogen Bomb was exploded and Vladimir Putin was born.  Hmm, nothing particularly propitious nor related to the ocean.

But like God, the Afterlife and attendant miracles, it is not the reality of the abstraction that matters, it is that special agglomeration of people and beliefs, drawn together with common purpose to attain a higher plateau of achievement for the benefit of Planet Earth and Humanity.  Inspired by the timely appearance of the Blue Ocean Dragon, the Pacific International Ocean Station is that crucial next stage towards the ultimate Blue Revolution.  We welcome you to join us in this monumental effort to develop the riches of the seas in harmony with the marine environment.

PIOS PRE-PLANNING DINNER

Blue Revolution Hawaii (from left, Patrick Takahashi, Fujio Matsuda, John Farias, Al Yee and Leighton Chong), the conceivers of the Pacific International Ocean Station, held a pre-planning dinner meeting with Al Yee, chair of our technical committee and founder of Yee Precast Design Group, at Kahala Nui, to develop the initial visuals for the program.  Here is Al, circa 1960 and more recently when he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Hawaii Engineering Society:

These renderings will be utilized to set the stage for an international summit planned for the Fall of 2013.  Al's committee will meet every Wednesday in February at 5:30PM.  Inquiries welcomed.  Contact Leighton Chong at  lkmchong@aol.com.


(Note:  click on those terms in color to access additional information.)


-

SECOND ANNUAL DINNER

The Board, Advisors and Friends of Blue Revolution Hawaii had our annual dinner at Ocean House.

The gathering was chaired by Leighton Chong, with Guy Toyama providing a powerpoint presentation on the Pacific International Ocean Station.  Above, Fuj Matsuda, Ken Sanders, Michael Asato, Joe Van Ryzin, John Farias, Benny Ron, Guy Toyama, Bill Spencer, Pat Takahashi and Leighton Chong.  A two year developmental plan was discussed.  Otherwise we had a great time with fine food and fabulous wines.

-

OCEAN ENERGY WORKSHOP

Two board members of Blue Revolution Hawaii played important roles in the 11-12 September 2011 Ocean Energy Workshop of the Hawaii-Okinawa Clean Energy Task Force.  Guy Toyama organized the event at the Gateway Center of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) at Keohole Point on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Patrick Takahashi assisted as a facilitator.

The gathering, had a larger mission, but very early in the discussion discarded wavepower and  other marine options to focus on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).   For the first time, ever, all the key principles of OTEC convened and said all the right things to assure for the future of this technology.

The event opened with a Hawaiian prayer (pule) and welcomes by County of Hawaii Mayor William Kenoi and Kumejima Town Mayor Choukou Taira.  We learned a new word, Haisai, which is aloha in Okinawan.  Most of the locals dressed in Aloha shirts, while many from Okinawa wore their equivalent, Kariyushi wear.

Below, Okinawa Prefectural Maritime Deep Ocean Water Research Station:

Reaffirmations of the Hawaii-Okinawa clean energy cooperation objectives were provided by Desikan Bharathan from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Andrea Gill for the Governor of Hawaii and Takahiro Yabe from the New Energy Development Organization of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.  Various technical presentations were made by Will Rolston (County of Hawaii), Yasuyuki Ikegami (Saga University), Tomoyuki Yoza (Kumejima Town), Shin Okamura (Xenesys), Gary Barbour ("new" executive director of NELHA) and Jan War (NELHA).  Panels from Japan (IHI, Kobe Steel, Yokohawa Electric Corporation, Saga University and Xenesys) and the USA (Makai Ocean Engineering, Lockheed Martin, NREL and the University of Hawaii) detailed the promise of OTEC.  Representatives from Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation and OTEC International were prominent in the discussions. 

The sister city signing ceremony was particularly memorable, with Mayors Kenoi and Taira:

The list of participants was impressive, but I won't mention who they were for fear of leaving someone out.  Maybe you'll see them somewhere in the signing ceremony:

First, some history, for off the coast of NELHA was where the first net positive experiment was conducted by Lockheed on Mini-OTEC in 1979:

Then 15 years later at NELHA came the 210 kW open cycle OTEC facility of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research:

Today, Pat and Guy posing at the Makai Ocean Engineering OTEC test tower:

Installed seven years ago was a 55 inch pipe, designed for a 1 MW OTEC power plant, with Noriko standing next to a cross section:

These two pieces of hardware are mentioned because the conferees came to a conclusion that the earliest priority is to install a turbogenerator and new pumping at the test tower so that up to 100 kW of OTEC electricity can be generated.  This enhancement could cost $5 million, and, most importantly, show the world that ocean thermal energy conversion is, indeed, producing net power.  

In parallel, planning should proceed to utilize the waters from the 55 inch cold and surface pipes to generate half to one megawatt of electricity.  It is possible that more than one OTEC system can be accommodated to operate in parallel to assure for success and provide a test bed where OTEC components can be tested.

Also discussed was the next stage, a 5-10 MW floating prototype, which could well break even economically.  Finally, part of the visioning included a 100 MW commercial OTEC plantship.  It is becoming more and more clear that "The Blue Revolution is the Optimal Solution for Japan."  A posting suggesting a similar opportunity can be found at "Blue Revolution for Germany."

Finally, finally, OTEC appears to be making progress.  We hope to see two operating OTEC systems at NELHA within a couple of years and a third net-positive OTEC facility at Kumejima (below) in this same time frame.

-