GreenFix floats solar island proposal

Californian start up GreenFix Energy has unveiled a new technology that it says could create floating islands capable of producing energy and potable water using nothing more than directly-collected solar energy and temperature differences in water.

GreenFix's proposed floating islands use solar thermal devices in conjunction with ocean thermal energy conversion technology. The latter takes advantage of the temperature difference between surface ocean water and deeper water, which is naturally colder.

The company claims that an evaporator operating in a heat exchanger loop would vapourise the water, lowering the pressure, which enables a turbine to be driven to produce electrical energy. Water would then be driven around the system in a loop running from the top to the bottom of the artificial island.

GreenFix is hoping to build giant islands that are between one and three km squared in size. The company said that the islands will have to be developed on a large scale because of the relative inefficiency of the ocean thermal energy conversion process, which can use up to 40 per cent of the energy produced in the conversion process.

The technology, called OASIIS, is being developed by chief technology officer and inventor Richard Henderson, along with Brad Listermann, a former investment banker bought in to lead the company.

It will compete with the five km squared islands planned by Nolaris, a startup funded by Swiss holding firm Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA, a private R&D centre specialising in microtechnology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, systems engineering and communications technologies.