The U.S. Department of Energy recently selected Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) to receive two grants totaling $1 million to advance the technology commercialization of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). The grants support the company’s effort to produce an economically viable, utility-scale renewable energy source leveraging the temperature difference of the ocean’s warm surface water and colder water below.
Under the first grant, Lockheed Martin will develop a tool to estimate the amount of energy that can be extracted from the ocean’s thermal layers. The geographic information system-based dataset and software tool will be used to identify regions of the world viable for OTEC and seawater-based air conditioning (SWAC). The resulting resource mapping will provide information to policy makers, the energy industry and the public about regional OTEC and SWAC feasibility.
SWAC, which uses cold seawater located near coastlines to supply air-conditioner coolant, has the potential to significantly reduce electric utility loads during high summer demand periods and is a proven technology currently in use in Hawaii, Bora Bora, Stockholm and Ottawa.
Under the second grant, Lockheed Martin will develop estimates of performance and life-cycle costs associated with utility-scale OTEC systems. The resulting data is expected to provide justification for pursuing commercialization of OTEC and generate investment interest.
The Department of Energy grants follow an $8.12 million Department of Defense award to Lockheed Martin in September 2009. That contract from the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command calls for development of critical OTEC system components and further matures its design for an OTEC pilot plant, an incremental step in developing large-scale utility plants. In 2008, Lockheed Martin received a $1.2 million Department of Energy contract to demonstrate how special cold water piping could be fabricated to carry the large volumes of seawater required to produce commercial power.
Lockheed Martin’s experience with OTEC technology dates back to the 1970s when the company built "Mini-OTEC." This early prototype remains the world’s only floating OTEC system to generate power in excess of what is required for self-sustainment. Since that time, Lockheed Martin has continued to mature and validate the critical technologies necessary for an OTEC system that could generate a utility-scale power supply.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation reported 2009 sales of $45.2 billion.
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Cliff-In answer to your question whether there were any results from the $10 million, I don’t know. A lot of it went to Lockheed and some to Makai. I understand that Lockheed’s cold water pipe design is pretty darn good although perhaps too good, a little over-built. But that I don’t mind one bit. Rogue waves scare the daylights out of me. The place where these darned smart guys seem to have fallen down is on the heat exchangers. The recent Lockheed report on their proposed heat exchanger design had a boiler heat transfer coefficient of 872 BTU/hr.ft2degrees F. The condenser, made out of titanium, had 580 BTU. These are roughly the same coefficients they had in 1978! (I’m mystified that they’re proposing titanium, which I believe is ten times more expensive. I thought everyone agreed that aluminum alloys were more than adequate.) Others have come up with coefficients much better than this. The report did not say if their numbers were actual or predicted. If DOE really wanted to advance OTEC, it would have contest to see who had the best heat exchanger, best performing and lowest cost. Each would be tested by a national lab. Its design would be kept top secret–not revealed to anyone. The heat exchanger inside would remain unknown to the testers. Anyone willing to apply could. Each grant would be $1,000,000. You could spend more if you wanted to. The top 10 applicants would be taken. The winner would get $20,000,000. This would light a fire under OTEC like nothing else.