OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION: AN OVERALL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Significant acccrmplishments in Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technology have increased the probability of producing OTEC-derived power within this decade with subsequent large scale commercialization following by the turn of the century. Under U.S. Department of Energy funding, the Oceanic Engineering Operations of Interstate Electronics Corporation has prepared several OTEC Environmental Assessments over the past years, in particular, the OTEC Programmatic Environmental Assessment. The Programmatic EA considers several technological designs (open- and closed-cycle), plant configuratlons (land-based, moored, and plant-ship), and power usages (baseload electricity, ammonia and aluminum production). Potential environmental impacts, health and safetv issues and a status update of the institutional issues as they influence OTEC deployments, are included