OTEC bounces back: the wave of the future

Falling oil prices and the Reagan Administration's failure to include any OTEC research funds in its energy budgets for several years drained interest in the subject. OTEC joined many other renewable energy sources on an ever-receding horizon of commercial viability. General Electric, once an enthusiast, concluded that OTEC was not viable after losing a competition for a DOE preliminary design contract. The electrical equipment giant dropped out of the business more than a year ago. Much has changed since. After a radical rethink, DOE plans to spend $4.5 million on OTEC research in the 1985 financial year. The money will go to the Solar Energy Research Institute, several national labs, and a number of consulting firms. The department is developing an elaborate multi-year research plan which it hopes to have ready by eary 1985. There is also foreign interest; e.g., Taiwan has recently commissioned Gianmoth and Associates International, a Houston-based marine engineering firm, to prepare feasibility and design studies for an OTEC plant on its east coast. Past problems that have plagued OTEC and possible solutions are discussed briefly.