Bureau Veritas has issued its first ‘Approval in Principle’ for the 1MW Ocean Thermal Energy Converter developed by the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering.
The OTEC will be built for installation off the coast of South Tarawa in Kiribati in the South Pacific Ocean.
It consists of an octagonal 6700-tonne four deck floating platform 35 metres across moored 6km offshore in a water depth of 1.3km.
A 100-metre pipe 1.2 metres in diameter will be used to pump cool water up from the depths to be fed to process plant on the platform.
Bureau Veritas said approval in principle implies that the OTEC design is “feasible, achievable and contains no technological show-stoppers that may prevent the design from being matured and that the design is deemed to be suitable for use in the metocean conditions that the unit facility will be located in”.
OTEC produces electricity from the difference of temperature between deep cold and warm surface seawater.
A working fluid is successively vaporised and condensed in a thermodynamic cycle, with the gas phase driving a turbo-alternator producing electricity.
Bureau Veritas senior vice-president and head of offshore Matthieu de Tugny said: “OTEC technology offers the potential for round-the-clock clean renewable energy from the ocean.
“We are excited to deploy our expertise in offshore energy, met-ocean studies and structures to help bring this project which will deliver clean electricity to remote areas to fruition.”
Image: sxc
