There are plans to pipe water from Austria down south to much dryer countries like Spain - but some people who live at the source of the water in the Alps are not keen on the idea.
Bolting cooling facilities onto an OTEC generator, and also using some of the resulting power for desalination on islands like the Bahamas that are short of fresh water, helps tip the economic balance in favour of OTEC.
"The guess is that both the water and the dark material, which we think is organic-rich material, were delivered by the same objects impacting Mercury: some mixture of comets and the kinds of asteroids that are rich in organic and volatile material likewater ice, " Prof Solomon said.
Just as a number of pieces of legislation addressing the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure like power and water systems are being introduced into the Congress, the New York Times reports that some lawmakers might be getting cold feet.