After a successful 1979 demonstration project using Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (exploiting ocean temperature differences to generate firm power), dropping oil prices cause interest in OTEC to wane.
OTEC is back with a demonstration project at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at Keahole Point in Kona. Plans are to create a 5MW demonstration project and then to create a 100-megawatt, utility-scale OTEC plant that would be mounted on a floating platform positioned several miles off of Oahu. The plant would feed electricity to the Hawaiian Electric Co. grid via an undersea cable.
The demonstration project at NELHA is being designed by Waimanalo-based Makai Ocean Engineering in partnership with Lockheed Martin Corp., the U.S. Department of Energy and the Navy. Both Makai Ocean Engineering and Lockheed were involved in the original OTEC project at NELHA in 1979.
Read more at the Star Bulletin