Sea Water Air Conditioning

For isolated locations such as Hawaii coal and oil are extremely expensive ways to maintian their energy industry. So what is the solution? Subsitutes of course. Hawaii has begun to use cold sea water to meet the islands' year round air conditioning needs. Says Reb Bellinger of the Makai Ocean Engineering Inc., "The offshore cold water is certainly the largest source of alternate energy available to the state of Hawaii. And you're not going to run out of it." The story can be found here at cnn.com.
Cold ocean water is pumped from in from offshore where the water is deep and cool to an oceanside plant and the cool ocean water is used to cool down fresh water which then cools down the interior of buildings. The process is similar to conventional air conditioning. Local buildings cold save up to 75% on their energy bills using the new system.
One concern is the ecological effects of returning the sea water back to the ocean. Deep sea water is rich in nutrients and could harm the water if emptied into shallow waters where there is abundant sunlight. It would be same as putting too much fertilizer on your lawn. So that is a problem that needs to be worked out. But I think it's a cool idea that will save Hawaiians money and make them less dependent on fossill fuels which are hard to get in their isolated location.
Here is a site on how the system works.