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What is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)?
The oceans cover a little more than 70% of the Earth's surface. This makes them the world's largest solar energy collector and energy storage system. On an average day, 60 million square kilometers (23 million square miles) of  tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 BILLION barrels of oil. If less than one-tenth of ONE percent of this stored solar energy could be converted into electric power, it would supply more than 20 times the total amount of electricity consumed in the United States on any given day.
OTEC, or Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, is an energy technology that converts solar radiation to electric power. OTEC systems use the ocean's natural thermal gradient---he fact that the ocean's layers of water have different temperatures---to drive a power-producing cycle. As long as the surface temperature between the warm surface water and the cold, deep water differs by about 20 degrees C. (36 degrees F.,) an OTEC system can produce a significant amount of power.
The oceans are thus a vast renewable resource, with the potential to help us produce billions of watts of electric power. According to some experts, this  potential is estimated to be about 1013 watts of baseload power generation. The cold, deep seawater used in the OTEC process is also rich in nutrients, and can be used to culture both marine organisms and plant life near the shore or on land.
What is Solar Energy Assisted Thermal Energy Conversion (SEATEC)?
OTEC cannot compete with SEATEC state-of-the-art technology for two principal reasons:
1. Of the total cost, 40% of an OTEC fabrication expense is attributed to the placement of a cold water pipe to the bottom of the sea to obtain the temperature differential.
2. Inappropriate turbine designs have been considered for energy recovery.
DragonHeartTM Foundation is in possession of an advanced state-of-the-art turbine design appropriate to the application.
SEATEC creates an excess of 100 degrees F., allowing the use of water at ambient temperatures to gain the temperature differential. While OTEC is 7% efficient, the SEATEC may well be over 35% efficient.
In simple terms, the temperature differential can be utilized five times---a commercially viable reference point.
Every degree increase in the differential increases the number of times the energy can be extracted. A new technology in making inexpensive liquid air/nitrogen can add new dimensions to the efficiency of this system.
The novelty of this system lies in the layering of plastic sheets over water that  acts as a medium for heat exchange of ambient water. The layers enhance induction and conduction, whereby 80% of the available solar heat is applied, whereas only 20% is reflected off the surface, rather than 80%.
Historically, plastic cannot be used for long in high solar intensity because of degradation, as can be seen by the yellowing plastic used in the desert greenhouses. A plastic that is not affected by UV has been tested in Arizona over a fifteen year period that has remained clear. It has not been recently available because of lack of a market. A large order will remedy that.
Advantages to this system are two-fold:
1. Theoretically, there is no limit to the scalability of this technology. This creates a desirable project funding platform for specific organizations of approximately $100-$200M+ per installation (100M producing 9 million gallons of fresh water per day, and creating 4MW of electricity;) and
 2. The technology is easily made mobile by container ship or used cargo ships and aircraft carriers. This would have been practical in the Gulf War when an oil slick was heading toward the Saudi desalinization installations. Mobile SEATEC has imminent advantages for providing energy and water, while land-based SEATEC is being constructed for uses including: multiple desert irrigation schemes, which would benefit from occasional irrigation techniques, and emergency rescue situations for coastal area. A potential irony exists that as the next war in the middle east is said to be over water, the aircraft carriers act as a major peace initiative.
This technology would be a significant benefit for any organization focussing on disaster relief, such as Ships of Salvation.
Note: The market could not be exhausted in our lifetime.
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