Lockheed Martin to Design 10MW OTEC Power Plant for Real Estate Group

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the military contractor, has just signed a memorandum agreement with the real-estate developer Reignwood Group, to design and build a 10MW ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plant. The plant will be used to provide 100% of the power for a new green resort that Reignwood is building.

Lockheed believe that “the agreement could lay the foundation for the development of several additional OTEC power plants ranging in size from 10 to 100 megawatts, for a potential multi-billion dollar value.”

Ted Johnson, the of alternative energy development at Lockheed, dreams of “thousands of floating OTEC ships roaming the seas of the world, providing an inexhaustible supply of clean energy and fuel and water for all people of the world.”

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Lockheed started working on OTEC technology in the 1970s, and hope that “constructing a sea-based, multi-megawatt pilot OTEC power plant for Reignwood Group is the final step in making it an economic option to meet growing needs for clean, reliable energy.”

Lockheed suggest that OTEC plants will be most popular in islands or coastal communities where energy costs tend to be high due to the difficult logistics of supplying the energy to these regions.

“Once the proposed plant is developed and operational, the two companies plan to use the knowledge gained to improve the design of the additional commercial-scale plants, to be built over the next 10 years. Each 100-megawatt OTEC facility could produce the same amount of energy in a year as 1.3 million barrels of oil, decrease carbon emissions by half a million tons and provide a domestic energy source that is sustainable, reliable and secure. With oil trading near $100 a barrel, the fuel-savings from one plant could top $130 million per year.”

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com