__________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ocean Energy
and maintenance planning, as well as determining how investors, governments, and insurers perceive risk.
This prototype will not answer every question, but it will help the industry to understand what a commercial scale design might look like, how often it would need maintenance, and what sort of weather windows it would require for installation and inspection. It will also help separate the parts of the system that need further innovation from the parts that are already mature enough to scale.
Meaningful steps
The wider renewables sector tends to move in waves, influenced by policy cycles, supply chain dynamics, and breakthrough moments. Floating wind had its moment when the first megawatt-class turbines proved they could operate offshore. Solar had its moment when costs dropped below grid parity. OTEC has been waiting for its own proof point. The PLOTEC project is not a final answer, but it is a meaningful step. It takes OTEC out of presentations and back into the water, where the real questions are answered.
For a technology that has long been defined by potential, that shift alone is important for the global discussion about what comes next in ocean energy. ■
Dan Grech globalotec. co
Dan Grech is the Founder and CEO of Global OTEC Resources, a UK company developing ocean thermal energy systems for island grids and offshore operations. His work focuses on practical pathways for bringing emerging ocean energy technologies into commercial use.
newenergy-today. com 17