Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Contribution to Energy

For the workshop on Sustainable Oceans in the Context of the Green Economy and the
Eradication of Poverty
Whitney Blanchard, Energy Specialist
Contractor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management
Disclaimer: The views and opinions contained in this paper are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views or official policy of NOAA or the Department of Commerce.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a marine renewable energy technology
that harnesses the solar energy absorbed by the oceans. OTEC is an attractive technology with
the potential to provide baseload electricity, unlike other ocean renewables that are intermittent
(e.g., wind, wave, and tidal energy). The technology uses the temperature differences between
the deep cold and relatively warmer surface waters of the ocean to generate electricity and it is
potentially viable in over eighty countries, primarily in equatorial areas where the year-round
temperature differential is at least 20 degrees Celsius. A preliminary global OTEC power
resource assessment is estimated to be 5 terawatts (i.e., one million megawatts) (Nihous 2007).
In comparison, the United States generating capacity in 2010 was less than 1.14 terawatts (EIA
2011) and in 2006, the global electricity generating capacity was just over 4 terawatts (2008).
Most electricity production is generated from fossil fuels (e.g., petroleum and coal) or nuclear
power. OTEC has the potential to contribute to the future energy mix offering more sustainable
electricity production. An OTEC industry would require a new supply chain creating
employment. Each commercial-scale OTEC facility is anticipated to create approximately 4,000
new jobs spanning one to four years (Lockheed 2011).
A unique feature of an OTEC facility is the cold water pipe which must constructed to
withstand ocean conditions. In order to obtain the temperature differential required for a 100
megawatt facility, a 10 m diameter pipe must be able to withdraw water at a 1000 m depth. Most
offshore OTEC development is designed as a closed-cycle facility where warm and cold
seawater pass through heat exchangers in contact with a working fluid with a low boiling point
(i.e., ammonia). Once the seawater has passed through the heat exchanger it is discharged back
into the ocean. The working fluid goes through cycles of vaporization (heat transferred from the
warm water) and condensation (heat transferred to the cold water) which drives a turbine
generator to produce electricity. OTEC facilities are projected to operate 85-95 % of the time
(Avery and Wu 1994) which is a greater capacity factor than intermittent ocean renewable
technologies. An OTEC facility continuously requires large volumes of both warm and cold
water to generate electricity and for every net megawatt of electricity produced, approximately 3
m3/s of cold water is needed (Nihous 2010). A 100 megawatt facility would require at least 600
m3/s of combined warm and cold seawater which is greater than any existing industry that uses

cooling water (e.g., coastal nuclear power plants). The environmental impacts from OTEC
operations, including from the water intakes and discharge, are not well studied or understood.
While there is not a commercial facility in the world, there have been OTEC
developments in the U.S. since the 1970s. The U.S. OTEC research and development includes
two offshore demonstrations in 1978 and1980 and an onshore test facility in the 1990s at Natural
Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. There has been a recent wave of OTEC interest from
the U.S. Federal Government. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency &
Renewable Energy has designated national marine renewable energy centers to facilitate research
and development for ocean energy technologies. The Hawaii National Marine Renewable Energy
Center at the University of Hawaii and the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center
at Florida Atlantic University have OTEC within their energy portfolio.
Since 2009, the U.S. Department of the Navy and the U.S. Department of Energy have
funded $15 million to OTEC research and development (Lockheed 2011) including energy
resource assessments, economic life cycle assessments, subsystem component testing (e.g., heat
exchangers and cold water pipe) and numerical modeling to predict the discharge plume fate and
transport from OTEC operations. Over $12 million of the federal investment has been awarded
to Lockheed Martin Corporation, a defense contractor, to develop a 100 megawatt facility design
and a 10 megawatt pilot project design. Additionally, Lockheed invested an over $15 million in
OTEC research and development (Lockheed 2011).
In addition to U.S. federal funding, there have been private OTEC investments. OTEC
International, LLC is a company that uses OTEC technology developed by Sea Solar Power,
both of which are funded by Abell Foundation. There have also been developments in OTEC
outside of the United States. DCNS, a French naval defense company, and the Martinique
regional authority signed an agreement in 2010 for a feasibility and exploratory installation study
for a 10-MW OTEC pilot plant in Martinique (DCNS). OTEC companies are arranging
agreements with governments and electric utility companies. For example, this past year in 2011,
Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation and Bahamas Electricity signed a Memorandum of
Understanding in for two onshore OTEC facilities in the Bahamas (Ocean Thermal Energy
Corporation).
Despite ongoing efforts, OTEC has not yet been demonstrated at a commercial scale
worldwide. The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition released a U.S. Marine and Hydrokinetic
Technology Roadmap (OREC 2011) describing the issues for the industry and the path to
commercialization by 2030. While OTEC is not specifically mentioned as a marine and
hydrokinetic technology, the key factors to commercialization are the same:
1. Technology research and development
2. Policy issues
3. Siting and permitting
4. Environmental research
5. Market development
6. Economic and financial issues

7. Grid integration
8. Education and workforce training.
The roadmap suggests a phased approach to commercialization beginning with demonstration
and pilot projects which are pre-commercial and grid connected moving towards
commercialization. OTEC has remained in the demonstration phase. The onshore experimental
in the 1990s produced 215 kilowatts of net electricity (Vega 2002/2003), however, commercialscale facilities are designed at 100 megawatts (i.e., 100,000 kilowatts). There is a need of a pilot
project to validate OTEC technology developments. OTEC technology is feasible at this scale
(e.g., less than 10 megawatts) using current designs, materials, manufacturing, and deployment
techniques; however, there is a need for further research, development, testing and evaluation for
the commercial-scale OTEC facility (CRRC 2009). OTEC designers, future customers,
financiers, and regulators need validation of the economic models, technical performance, and
environmental performance from a pilot plant prior to commercial scale development (Bedard R.
2010). The cost is what remains a challenge; for example, the Lockheed Martin 10 megawatt
pilot plant is estimated to cost $230-$250 million (Lockheed 2011).
References
EIA . "Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation." from http://www.otecorporation.com/index.html.
(2008). International Energy Annual 2006. IEA. Washington, DC.
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Corporation: 14.
Avery, W. H. and C. Wu (1994). Renewable Energy from the Ocean: A Guide to OTEC. New
York, Oxford University Press.
Bedard R., P. T. J., M. Previsic, W. Musial, R. Varley (2010). A Overview of Ocean Renewable
Energy Technologies. Oceanography. Rockville, MD, The Oceanography Society, Inc. 23: 139.
CRRC (2009). Technical Readiness of Ocean Thermal Energy
Conversion (OTEC). Durham, NH, University of New Hampshire: 27 pp and appendices.
DCNS. "Ocean thermal energy." from http://en.dcnsgroup.com/energy/marine-renewableenergy/ocean-thermal-energy/.
EIA (2011). Annual Electric Generator Report. Washington, DC.
Nihous, G. r. C. (2007). "A Preliminary Assessment of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
Resources." Journal of Energy Resources Technology 129(1): 10.

Nihous, G. r. C. (2010). "Mapping available Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion resources

around the main Hawaiian Islands with state-of-the-art tools." Journal of Renewable and
Sustainable Energy 2(4): 043104.
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Vega, L. A. (2002/2003). "Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Primer." Marine Technology
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