Florida's Sea Water Cooling resource: An updated assessment

Abstract

To assess the potential for utilizing Sea Water Cooling (SWC) systems in Florida, sea water temperatures are utilized by a representative SWC system to quantify potential energy savings. The HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) is used to characterize the near bottom temperatures statewide, suggesting that the temperatures needed for SWC are closest to shore off the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. Numerous in situ data sets recently collected off Fort Lauderdale/Miami are presented alongside several historic data sets to characterize the resource in this area. This data suggests that a cold water resource with a mean temperature of 8–10°C exists off Fort Lauderdale in 160–220 m of water and 7–9°C exists off Miami in 200–300 m of water, both approximately 6 km from shore. These temperatures vary significantly at frequencies from about 2 days to 2 weeks with a seasonal dependence where these temperatures are cooler during the summer. A basic SWC plant model is presented to predict the energy savings for a generic 3.5 MW (1000 ton) AC system. This plant model suggests that off Fort Lauderdale the average energy required for this cooling system would be reduced by approximately 50% and off Miami it would be reduced by 54%.