Isra-Mart srl:Deep Ocean Power reveals Philippines offshore masterplan

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Deep Ocean Power Philippines, a developer of marine energy projects, is working on plans to install a mixture of renewable energy technologies at 36 coastal sites around the country, according to reports in the Philippine Star.

The firm is the Philippines branch of US-based Deep Ocean Power, one of the world's largest producers of ocean power. Fourteen of the sites have already been indentified as specifically suitable for ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technologies, eight for tidal energy projects and the others for offshore wind farms.

OTEC makes use of the temperature differential between the warm surface waters of the oceans, heated by solar radiation, and the deeper cold waters to generate electricity.

The Philippines' waters are one of the best locations for OTEC technology due to deep ocean shelves that lead to large differences between the warm surface water and the deeper cold water.

Deep Ocean Power vice president Jonathan Wong said the firm was looking to develop between 10MW and 300MW of capacity on each site, adding that sites may be used for a number of technologies if suitable.

"Each site will be used not only for OTEC but for onshore and offshore wind farms and solar energy as well, if it is determined they are suitable for such technology," said Wong.

A land-based power plant will be built to help convert the OTEC energy to baseload power and commercial operation is expected to begin in 2012.

"The company is in the process of finalising the implementation of the first power plant, hopefully by the middle of this year," Wong told the Star, adding that the cost of ocean thermal technology is comparable with the cost of wind and solar power.

The Department of Energy last year awarded the company licences to develop technology in the 36 selected areas as part of an effort to reduce the country's reliance on oil imports and to cut emissions.

Currently the Philippines is almost entirely reliant on fossil fuels for its energy supply, but the department estimates that the country has the potential to generate more than 170GW from the offshore technologies.

The country wants to double its renewable energy capacity by 2013 and has a goal of being the number one wind energy producer in south east Asia.