OTEC：Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

Characteristics of OTEC

Clean and renewable
The energy source of OTEC is the seawater only, which is clean and renewable.
Huge potential
OTEC can be applicable to about 100 countries, and the power generation potential is estimated at 1 trillion kW worldwide.
Stable
OTEC can supply electricity stably throughout the year. This is a distinguished feature of OTEC comparing to other natural energies such as wind power and solar power, which are affected by the weather and difficult to run continuously.
Contribution to the reduction of CO2 emission
OTEC emits extremely low CO2 in its whole lifecycle. (CO2 emission rate for 100 MW-class : 0.014 kg-CO2/kWh) Also, CO2 fixation effects can be expected by diffusing the deep seawater after being used at OTEC system onto the surface layer of the sea, since marine plants grow well with the nutrient rich deep seawater.
Other

Considering the secondary use of the deep seawater, such as fish culturing, agriculture, district cooling, production of mineral salt, production of fresh water and mineral water, and extraction of rare metal (i.e. lithium), the potential of OTEC is immeasurable. For details, please refer to "Desalination and Secondary Use of Deep seawater".

Type	Power Generation Cost (JPY/kWh)		Load factor(%)
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion	1MW (Demonstration) : 40～60 10MW (Pre-commercial) : 15～25 50MW (Fully commercial) : 8～13		90

	Power Generation Cost (JPY/kWh)		Load factor(%)
	Year 2010	Year 2030
Nuclear	over 8.9	over 8.9	70
Coal-fired（The new policy scenario）	9.5	10.3	80
LNG-fired（The new policy scenario）	10.7	10.9	80
Wind（On shore）	9.9～17.3	8.8～17.3	20
Wind（Offshore; fixed-bottom）	9.4～23.1	8.6～23.1	30
Photovoltaic（Residential）	33.4～38.3	9.9～20.0	12
Source："Cost Estimation and Review Committee Report" Power generation cost (fig.36) (2004 calculation / Year 2010, 2030 Model plant) National Policy Unit, Energy and Environment Council (December 2011)