Research proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation, Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) : Pele Energy Laboratory Experiments

Abstract

As in most major scientific and engineering efforts, in order to achieve success, it will be necessary to experiment. Ideally, an outdoor laboratory is needed where [people] may experiment with the extraction of the earth's interior heat. They must also have a place where they can experiment with the development of conversion and transmission systems that will produce and transmit power from this heat in a non-polluting manner under different conditions and for satisfactory distances Hawaii may be the laboratory. This proposal suggests a two-year RANN funding to enable a specific interdisciplinary group of researchers at the University of Hawaii, together with a group of distinguished advisors and consultants, to initiate feasibility studies and obtain data fundamental to a realization of the Hawaii laboratory concept. The laboratory problem, which serves as an application to motivate the researchers, is the need to determine the feasibility of providing non-polluting power for Hawaii from the extraction of Java energy. In the process of generating data of relevance to the solution of this problem, the laboratory characteristics will be documented. The program is named after the Hawaiian Goddess of Volcanoes, PELE. It is an acronym for Pele Energy Laboratory Experiments. This eventually may mean Power from the Extraction of Lava Energy, if sufficient private venture capital is identified for the development as an outgrowth of the RANN effort.