Harnessing the Power of the Gulf Stream

In Washington recently, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made an announcement that clears the way for a new and largely untapped renewable energy resource — the oceans.

He announced regulations that would "guide the use of wind, wave and current resources on the 1.8 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf on the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coast."

In South Florida, researchers are already working to harness the power of one of the ocean's most energy-dense currents — the Gulf Stream.

The Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology is only a little more than a year old, but it's in a great location. It's just off the beach and, as director Rick Driscoll points out on a map, it is just 15 miles from the Gulf Stream.

"This is actually the closest location of any place on the planet of a major ocean current by a load center that needs the power now," he says. "We have no place to build power plants and yet we're growing. Florida is growing by a thousand people a day."

Driscoll's answer: underwater turbines moored in the heart of the Gulf Stream. He believes that ultimately, the current — which flows at 8 billion gallons per minute — could yield as much energy as several nuclear plants, providing one-third of Florida's power.

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