Hydrothermocline

Useful power can be generated from heat differentials...and as it happens, the oceans of Earth contain heat differentials. How does one recover this power? It's simple! All you need is the Hydrothermocline™, another fine product of Energy Futures Industries! It's guaranteed to solve Earth's energy problems forever, unless those dratted robots steal it first.

Well, it will be a fine product, if their programmers will stop wasting company time MUSHing.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

The hydrothermocline was under development at Energy Futures Industries. Inevitably, the Decepticons came knocking...as well as the Autobots. The good guys virtually won; the bad guys walked off with the prize...but that's how the game goes, sometimes. Afterdeath!

The Decepticons moved their base of operations to an island in the Florida Keys in order to take advantage of Earth's oceans. Gone but Not Forgotten!

Notes

• Like much of Bob Budiansky's fictional technology, the hydrothermocline is solidly grounded in real-world science. Its operating principle is sound, and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants have been studied, proposed, and actually tested in prototype form.