Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) and Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have formed a partnership to develop a 10-megawatt (MW) Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) pilot plant in Hawai‘i.
ITRI agreed to join a feasibility study and the initial pilot plant in Hawai‘i, after Governor Linda Lingle visited Taiwan last month.
OTEC technology provides renewable electricity generated from the difference in temperature between the ocean’s warm surface and its chilly depths.
Unlike many other renewable energy technologies, OTEC can provide consistent baseload power. The ocean temperatures and the subsea terrain make the waters surrounding both Taiwan and Hawai‘i superior locations for this technology.
Lockheed Martin Corporation has developed and studied OTEC technology for more than 30 years, according to a release. Its plans for a 10-MW OTEC pilot plant in Hawai‘i are already underway.
"As island economies in the Pacific, Taiwan and the State of Hawai‘i share very similar challenges of overdependence on imported petroleum for their energy needs," Governor Lingle said. "Taiwan and Hawai‘i also share a common vision and plan to increase renewable and clean energy generation based on indigenous energy resources."
Most OTEC research and development in recent decades has been performed at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (NELHA), located at Keahole Point, Kona. Huge pipelines bringing cold, deep ocean water to the surface enabled the demonstration of a variety of OTEC components and pilot plants.
Mini-OTEC, the first closed-cycle, at-sea OTEC plant to generate net electricity, was deployed in the waters off NELHA in 1979. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company was a partner in that effort as well as subsequent research at NELHA.
This latest agreement with Taiwan complements the Hawai‘i Clean Energy Initiative, a partnership between the State of Hawai‘i and the United States Department of Energy which aims to move the state away from its dependence on fossil fuels and toward a clean energy driven economy that will be a model for other states and regions.
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