Traditional Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is proven to work, it’s just renewable organic Rankine cycle.

Traditional OTEC could have been made to work 100 years ago, in fact most if not all the parts can come from well-known public companies.

Traditional OTEC is expensive so it is not competitively priced on small or even large scales, furthermore, larger scale projects have feasibility problems.

New-otec means a new cold-water delivery system, and a new lower cost.

Now the promise of 24-7 clean power throughout the tropics and beyond can become a reality.

OTEC power generation is organic Rankine cycle with a low, but naturally occurring temperature difference.

Now that we have a low-cost cold-water delivery system, we do not need to scale up to be cost effective.

That means a reasonably sized plant that is also a reasonable investment.

Lower costs mean that sites further away from the cold-water source, 10 km or more, are now feasibly in range.

A Heat-exchanger system.

A turbo-generator.

Other power electronics and telematics systems for motor control, and remote monitoring.

Working fluid pumps.

At least one pair of hoses, and mender couplings.

At least one turbo-pump.

Sea water sumps, filters, and pumps.

Miscellaneous including gauges and sensors.

Optional extras include:

Multi-stack motors.

(Seasonal temperature changes mean that you could double your power output in the summer with the same heat exchanger and water delivery system.)

Additional Heat exchangers.

Additional heat exchangers will provide more net power, and a prolonged heat exchanger service life.

For areas closer to the edge of the tropics where there are greater seasonal temperature differences, more heat exchangers will grant year-round ‘base-load’ power, and the opportunity to double power output in the Summer.

Additional waste heat or renewable heat, heat exchangers.

Additional heat and an additional heat exchanger can change the cost of OTEC by 50% or more.  This step would be recommended in all but the very best natural sites and even then, it would still be worth doing.  It all depends on how much extra heat there is as to how much more power you can produce.

An installation service.

(Hose and HX Installation might be simple enough for some organisations to be able to do it themselves.)

Groundworks.

An operation and maintenance service.

 A battery bank.

Low-cost Hose protectors.

A bespoke site-specific shore-side hose-protection system.

(Where hoses are being hit by waves and are travelling over uneven, rocky ground or a steep ledge.)