Panama Pipe was first proposed by Charles M. Barnard in 2008 as a possible means of moderating climatic change while producing income and energy for the country of Panama. At it's simplest, it consists of an underground pipeline connecting the Western Caribbean with the Eastern Pacific, permitting the flow of cold Pacific water to the East.
Logic behind the proposal:
Currently, the Western Caribbean near the coast of Panama is a dying ecosystem--it's being cooked as water temperatures continue to rise. It is nutrient and oxygen starved.
Before the Isthmus of Panama blocked the currents some 3 million years ago, this would not have been possible, as there was a continuous flow of cold Pacific water upwelling which crossed into the Caribbean. (The Pacific sea level is some 8"/200mm above the Caribbean.)
At that time, this cold current was associated with a conveyor current running across the bottom of the Caribbean from West to East and a matching surface current running East to West.
We know that world weather was far more stable before this closure--stable for hundreds of thousands of years rather than mere hundreds or thousands since that time.
The Panama Pipe would reattach the Pacific to the Caribbean, bringing large amounts of cold, deep, nutrient rich water into the surface of the Western Caribbean.
Enough cooling has a probability of restarting these conveyor currents, cooling the entire Caribbean.
Even without such a major climatic effect, it would provide a solution to restoring the Western Caribbean ecosystem, thus the fishing industry.
The pipe itself would run below sea level, with the Western end located about 350 meters below the surface, near the edge of the uplift current. The Eastern end would be at or below sea level--dumping into fish farms.
While the amount of head in the system is only 200mm, we're talking about millions of cubic feet--sufficient to extract energy via turbine generator, and a temperature difference of 60C which could provide thermoelectric power.
Panama currently imports nearly all of it's energy. This project could make Panama energy self-sufficient.
Anywhere along the pipeline route, the pipe can be tapped for cooling, greatly reducing costs for indoor climate control.
Project feasibility & costs:
The proposed pipeline would be about 100 miles long, through a seismically active zone.
Luckily, we now have a lot of engineering experience in tunneling in such areas thanks to Japan's undersea train tunnel completed a few years ago at a cost of ~$7 billion.
While the proposed pipeline is almost twice the length of the Japanese tunnel, it is a far less complex structure, as it doesn't require most of the costs associated with a tunnel which has to transport people.
It is expected that the entire project could be completed for a similar amount of money, perhaps in less than the 7 years that the Japanese tunnel required.
Preliminary projections indicate that the combination of fishing and energy would provide sufficient income to provide payback in under 50 years--without any projected larger scale weather change. Indoor climate cost reductions are not included in those calculations.
Risks:
Disruption of the already dying Western Caribbean ecosystem is certain. More study is required to determine exactly what that encompasses.
Disruption of the Eastern Pacific ecosystem could vary from minimal to major depending upon the exact solutions implemented--ranging from a simple screened pipe to a large tidal dam designed to maximize the 190cm tidal difference between East and West. The more ambitious proposal provides more constant flow and a higher average volume.
The actual impacts upon weather can only be roughly approximated using currently available tools, so there may be no non-local weather effects.
No comments:
Post a Comment