EUROCEAN OTEC PROJECT.

EUROCEAN, established in 1970, is an Association comprised of 26 industrial companies from 9 European countries, with the purpose of studying and exploring the seas in the light of their industrial exploitation and protection. The main areas of interest are Energy, Living Resources, Minerals and Metals, and Bio-chemistry. The companies form groups according to their interest and one such group is concerned with the OTEC concept as an industrial proposition. The EUROCEAN OTEC group was formed in 1976 and its first report is the basis for this paper. Technical studies on systems and components have been made and the technical problems have been defined stating the need for development and testing of heat exchangers, the need for testing turbines, cold water pipes, power cables and also mooring or positioning, the need for further work on various components and subsystems. An initial evaluation of the economics has been made and a study has been conducted on the sensitivity of the electricity cost to the main parameters. The utilization of the produced energy and the integration of possible industrial processes with the OTEC plant have been surveyed. Suitable sites have been geographically defined taking into account meteorological and oceanographic data as well as markets.