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Energy Sources

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) uses the temperature differences between warm surface water and cold deep water to generate electricity. The OTEC system must have a temperature difference of at least 25 degrees Celsius to operate, limiting use to tropical regions. Hawaii has experimented with OTEC since the 1970s at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA) on the Big Island.

In 2006, Ocean Engineering & Energy Systems, an international engineering company with offices in Honolulu, announced plans to build a 1 MW OTEC plant at NELHA and a 13-MW plant for the U.S. military, location to be determined. These would be the world’s largest OTEC plants, according to Ocean Engineering.

More about OTEC

Otecnews.org

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