U.S. Department of Energy Awards Lockheed
Martin Contract to Demonstrate Innovative Ocean Thermal
Energy Conversion Subsystem
MANASSAS, Va., Oct 8, 2008 - PRNewswire
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a cooperative
agreement contract with a maximum value of $1.2 million
by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate
innovative technologies to enable ocean thermal energy
power generation.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
uses the ocean's thermal gradient to drive a heat
engine. Since the ocean's temperature difference is
relatively small, large volumes of seawater must be
moved to generate commercial levels of power. The
fabrication and installation of large diameter cold
water piping -- required to reach depths of thousands
of feet -- represents one of the largest technical
challenges to the successful installation and operation
of an offshore OTEC system.
Under the terms of the cooperative agreement,
Lockheed Martin will demonstrate a cold water pipe
fabrication approach using modern fiberglass technology
and recent low-cost composite material manufacturing
methods at prototype and pilot plant scales. The company's
Manassas-based business will lead the OTEC effort;
fabrication work will be performed at Lockheed Martin's
Advanced Technology Center in Sunnyvale, CA. West
Virginia University's Constructed Facilities Center
also will support the project for the pilot plant
scale demonstration.
"OTEC holds the promise of providing
clean, base-load electricity to energy markets that
today rely almost exclusively on fossil fuels," said
Denise Saiki, vice president and general manager of
Lockheed Martin's Undersea Systems business unit.
"It's conceivable, for example, that OTEC could enable
Hawaii to achieve energy independence within a generation.
Our independent research and development work to date
has shown OTEC to be technically feasible. The next
step is to demonstrate it on a commercial scale and
this DOE contract will help accelerate our progress
towards that goal."
Lockheed Martin's experience with OTEC
technology dates back 30 years. In 1974 the company,
teamed with Bechtel Corp. and T.Y. Lin International,
conducted a nine-month study on the practicality of
generating electrical power at competitive prices
from the solar energy naturally stored in the ocean's
thermal gradient. The company followed that National
Science Foundation-sponsored research with a self-funded
four-month demonstration called Mini-OTEC, with support
from the U.S. Navy, Makai Ocean Engineering, Dillingham
Construction, and other firms. The Mini-OTEC plant
was highly successful and remains the only floating,
net-power producing OTEC plant ever built. Mini-OTEC
was operated by the Lockheed Martin team for four
months off Hawaii's main island to gather technical
data on the operation of the system, as well as to
prove the feasibility of clean electricity production
using ocean temperature differences in an environmentally
benign way.
Lockheed Martin is currently exploring
a range of potential applications for OTEC technology,
including both electric power and fresh water generation.
In addition to leveraging cross-corporate resources,
Lockheed Martin is working with Makai Ocean Engineering
in Honolulu, HI and other companies and universities
with expertise in the technologies crucial to the
success of ocean thermal energy commercialization.
Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed
Martin is a global security company that employs about
140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged
in the research, design, development, manufacture,
integration and sustainment of advanced technology
systems, products and services. The corporation reported
2007 sales of $41.9 billion.
Lockheed Martin
CONTACT: Jack Papp of Lockheed Martin,
+1-703-367-2484,jack.papp@lmco.com
Web site: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/
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