INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
View of OTEC facility at Keahole Pointe on the Kona coast of Hawaii . ( Wikimedia Commons )
Thus , the reduction of 19.90 million tonnes over a five-year period would call for the development of [ 19,900,000 tonnes /( 5 years x 7,500 tonnes )] MW-year or 531 MW of OTEC . Assuming the capacity factor of OTEC is 90 %, it is hereby proposed that 600 MW of OTEC capacity be developed and that would require a total capital investment of USD4.5 billion , at a rate of USD750 / 100 MW floating OTEC Plant .
As shown in Tables 3 and 4 , every capital investment of USD750 million per 100 MW OTEC Plant installed on a Floating Platform Storage Offshore ( FPSO ) with the required Electrolysers , Compressors , and deep-sea water ( DSW ) facilities for the production and bottling of DSW mineral water , could be recovered within five years .
DISCUSSION
As per the Malaysia Renewable Energy ( RE ) Roadmap ( MyRER ), “ post-2025 , sustained RE deployment shall ensure continued socioeconomic impact in the period of 2026-2035 , with an estimated RM33.07 billion in cumulated investment and 46,636 jobs in the RE sector ,” as outlined in Table 5 .
In US Dollar , the cumulative investment over the 10-year period would be about USD7.08 billion , at RM4.67 / USD , for the development of renewable energy projects from the existing resources , namely , SolarPV , Biogas , Biomass , and Hydros . Such an investment in these renewables is much higher than that of the proposed ocean thermal energy-driven development of USD4.5 billion by 57 %, that is , USD2.58 billion .
In short , the proposed ocean thermal energydriven development of 600 MW capacity is more competitive than those outlined in the current Roadmap , with an investment savings of USD2.58 billion over the 10-year period and meeting the same target of reducing the national emission target from 109.11 million tonnes in 2025 to 89.21 million tonnes in 2035 .
CONCLUSION
By investing USD4.50 billion in ocean thermal energy-driven development in 2025-2035 , Malaysia would be able to fulfil its carbon emission target of 89.21 million tonnes by 2035 . This investment could be recovered within a period of five years .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development ( SATREPS ) Programme entitled ‘ Development of Advanced Hybrid Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion ( OTEC ) Technology for Low Carbon Society and Sustainable Energy System : First Experimental OTEC Plant of Malaysia ’ funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency ( JST ) and Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA ), and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia ( MoHE ) and led by the Institute of Ocean Energy Saga University ( IOES ) of Japan , and UTM Ocean Thermal Energy Centre ( UTM OTEC ), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia ( UTM ). Registered Programme Cost Centre : # R . K130000.7809.4L887 , Project 1 UTM : Cost Centre # R . K130000.7809.4L888 .
70 VOL 96 OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2023