The Ocean thermal energy conversion strategies and analysis of current challenges

Authors

Lasantha Meegahapola, University of MoratuwaFollow
Lanka Udawatta, University of Moratuwa
Sanjeeva Witharana, University of Leeds

RIS ID

41302

Publication Details

L. Meegahapola, L. Udawatta & S. Witharana, "The Ocean thermal energy conversion strategies and analysis of current challenges," in ICIIS 2007 - 2nd International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems 2007, 2007, pp. 123-128.

Abstract

This paper presents different roots of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) strategies and challenges faced in terms of efficiency and economy of OTEC plants. The conversion strategies primarily focus on open cycle, closed cycle and hybrid plants. The efficiency studies mainly skew towards the effect of plant distance and thermal gradient towards plant efficiency. The economic analysis is based upon the effect of per unit cost for OTEC plant together with other important considerations such as Plant Factor (PF) and offshore distance, which determine the cost of power generation. Some illustrative examples are also provided using the derived equations under efficiency and economic studies.