OTEC ocean engineering technology development

Abstract

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is the principal ocean energy source under development by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) because of its potential, state of development, and availability and access of the resource to the U. S. The major features of OTEC are that the source is renewable with minimum impact on the environment, and the constant availability of the resource enhances OTEC acceptability as a power baseload option, with no requirement for additional storage. DOE has delegated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to carry out its OTEC Ocean Engineering Technology Development program. This program involves conducting research in critical, high technical risk areas in order to demonstrate technical and economical feasibility and develop a technical information base which can be used by industry to develop commercially viable systems. This program established preliminary baseline designs for floating and fixed systems; developed analytical computer models; conducted laboratory tests of scale models to calibrate analytical models; and is now preparing for sea tests of larger scale models for further validation of analytical models and improvement of baseline designs. This paper summarizes the technical accomplishments and major findings, mainly reported over the last year, and describes some of the remaining critical needs and the projects underway or planned to minimize the problems and associated risks. This paper covers the ocean engineering technology, viz., platforms, cold water pipe and sea water system, mooring and foundation systems and other areas related to the overall system integration aspects. The development of the electrical umbilical cable and bottom-mounted transmission cable has been managed directly by DOE and is integrated into the ocean engineering system.