MANASSAS, Va., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) 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.
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