Ocean Energy Institute Proposed in Maine

This article,
Former MBNA waterfront complex sold (3/31/07) reports that the Rockland Harbor Park LLC, has bought the former MBNA building on the City of Rockland, Maine waterfront. At least one of the investors, Matthew Simmons hopes to to use part of the facility for an Ocean Energy Institute. The article quotes Simmons as saying:

"Both [legislators] are also very enthusiastic about my Ocean Energy ideas and I suspect in a few months, I will have both to Midcoast Maine speaking about peak oil," Simmons wrote. "Today was a big day for peak oil and hopefully the Ocean Energy beginning of how the world uses our oceans for energy and for Rockland and the investors in this real estate project."

Comments

[Richard Cummings]

Do you know about Energy Island? It a bold, new energy source that is actually starting up in the Philippines, a revolutionary concept developed by Anglo-French architect/engineer, Dominic Michaelis. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) uses the temperature difference between surface and deep seal water to generate electricity. Michaelis puts the concept to work in an unprecedented scale with a design to build a floating, hexagonal Energy Island that harnesses energy from OTEC, as well as as from winds, sea currents, and the sun. A particularly valuable by-product is fresh, potable water produced by desalinization. Because it is a non-fossil fuel source, Energy Island produces no greenhouse gasses and does not pose the risk for global warning.

Backed by capital raised in the Philippines, Energy Island will construct the first prototype there. He envisions a chain of energy islands capable of providing considerable amounts of "green" energy of the soft energy variety. Working with Michaelis are world-renowned scientists and engineers, including experts at the University of Southampton in England. They are currently bidding for the $25 million given by Richard Branson's Virgin Earth Prize, which is awarded for environmentally responsible research. Michaelis received his degree in architecture from Cambridge (Trinity College) and then received the M.Sci from Cornell.

I know Dominic Michaelis from Cambridge and consider him to be one of the most brilliant and creative people I have ever met. Because I have written on environmental subjects and taught at the Duke School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, I believe Energy Island to be something that deserves the widest possible exposure. I have no financial or other interest in Energy Island except as a member of the human race on the planet earth. We are in a race between scientific and technological breakthroughs and catastrophe and the sooner we can get this new technology up and running the better.

If you wish to speak directly with Dominic, please let me know and I can arrange it. His son, Alex, also an architect, is in London and has been serving as the spokesperson for the project. Should you wish to speak with him, I can arrange that as well.

Kindest regards,

Richard Cummings Ph.D. (Cambridge University)
7 Stanford Court
Sag Harbor, NY 11063
Tel. 631-537-0683