Dr. Ted Johnson of Lockheed Martin discusses Hawaii's future OTEC plant.Dr. Ted Johnson, Lockheed’s director of Alternative Energy Development, told a packed Ocean Energy breakout session that a pilot plant could be up and running within four years. It would be 10 megawatts and sit in at least 3,000 feet of water four miles off Kahe Point on Oahu’s western shore.
Kahe is the site of Hawaiian Electric’s largest generating station, so the plant’s intended location makes sense. When asked how long it would take to scale the plant up to 100MW, Johnson said it could be done in only two years if the pilot plant pans out. (The Honolulu Advertiser carried essentially the same information on 9/3.)
Two Big Questions
Johnson seems to suggest that the Department of Defense will be the funding source, although he offered nothing concrete. And if that source isn’t sufficient, Johnson said some kind of a “private-public partnership” could be pursued – again, no details.
The DOD’s huge reliance on fossil fuels might be what it takes for its purse to open with help from Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Inouye's not shy about his ability to target federal funding, and it's not a stretch to imagine him making it happen.
Beyond funding, Johnson said the cold water pipe is the biggest technological hurdle remaining to be overcome, but he seemed confident that a plastic material perfected by Lockheed Martin’s space program will prove up to the challenge.
Path to Commercialization
When asked about costs to build Lockheed Martin’s plant, Johnson said he likes to put it in terms of cost per kilowatthour to generate OTEC power – in the low 20s of cents, he said. The average electricity rate for all sectors in Hawaii's economy in May 2009 was 18.92 cents/KWH, the highest in the nation.
Lockheed’s projection of having a pilot plant in place and providing valuable operational data within four years seems pretty aggressive. One can imagine a least a year devoted strictly to obtaining regulatory and environmental approvals.
Still, this proposed schedule is encouraging. We’d feel even better if we knew Ted Johnson and Senator Inouye have each other on speed dial.
1 comment:
Deepwater Structures Inc., Houston, Texas has designed a new OTEC power plant that is 100 MW ready to fabricate and install. DSI removed the cold water pipe requirements and uses all high technologies available in the deepwater oil and gas into OTEC technology to reduce cost by 10 times. DSI-OTEC-100MW unit costs $400 million USD and can supply electricity to Hawaii for $0.15 per kWh unit. DSI can make significant profti over 2 billion in the life of the OTEC. DSI-OTEC is designed for 35 years life. A 1000 MW DSI-OTEC is very feasible and is being desinged for Chennai of India electricity need in the offshore Bay of Bengal deepwater. DSI-OTEC is ready to commericial applications within four years from now and 1000s of DSI-OTEC will be installed in the mere future. Hydrogen production, storage and transportation technology will be profitable with DSI-OTEC in the common deepwater near equator. Fuel cell technology will take off and that would impact global economy. DSI-OTEC is a big game changer and large companies now collobrate with DSI.
Post a Comment