Abstract
Lockheed Martin supported by Makai Ocean Engineering, John Halkyard & Associates, and Sound & Sea Technology, conducted several critical component development tasks associated with the interface between an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system Cold Water Pipe (CWP) and platform. This work was part of the effort performed for the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, Port Hueneme under Contract N62583-09-C-0083, initiated 21 August 2009. This OTEC Technology Development Report provides the results of the selected critical component work.
The Navy views OTEC technology as a potentially viable means to reduce dependence on fossil fuel for electricity generation at bases located in tropical areas, including Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia (NSFDG), as well as naval facilities in Hawaii and Guam. The Navy's long term objective is the commercialization of OTEC technology to permit purchase of power and water from a privately developed OTEC facility at cost effective rates. Advancing OTEC technology to a commercially viable level is the subject of this design work. A key step to OTEC commercialization is deployment of a Pilot Plant of sufficient size to validate environmental assessment models, system performance, and system cost estimates such that commercial financers will be encouraged to invest in commercial scale projects. Therefore, Pilot Plant requirements included 5 MW net capacity a two year test phase, and eventual scale up to 10 MW.
This report provides the critical component development results. The Lockheed Martin’s OTEC team developed a composite CWP that is fabricated on the platform to eliminate the need to deploy the pipe from shore to the platform site. The critical components addressed under this contract included the CWP termination (the transition from a composite CWP to the steel of the platform), the gripper (the mechanism to hold and lower the CWP during fabrication, the guides (positions the CWP during fabrication), and the environmental enclosure for the CWP fabrication apparatus.