UK OTEC developer kicks off crowdfunding campaign

British developer Global OTEC Resources launched a crowdfunding campaign today (February 16) to enable moving forward with detailed designs, environmental impact assessments and site studies, after the company teamed up with DWR Offshore and signed four memorandums of understanding with resorts in the Middle East in 2017.

The ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) developer is targeting £500,000 through the fundraising, having already secured a £10,000 grant from the EU Regional Development Fund as a low-carbon initiative.

The company is planning on building, owning and operating the hotel industry’s first commercially viable OTEC systems that produce fossil-fuel free electricity, and it aims to install 100 OTEC systems over the next ten years.

“All these resorts draw their power from diesel generators. Moreover some individual resorts consume 7,000 litres of diesel a day to meet demands which equates to over 6,000 tonnes of CO2 annually,” said Dan Grech, Global OTEC Resources’ director.

Looking at the use of solar power, it has not proven itself as a viable option for many of these resorts. “We’re running a pilot with solar PV panels in Mauritius but current results do not support plans to roll this out on a larger scale,” said Dominik Ruhl of LUX* Resorts, one of the four resorts now on Global OTEC Resources’ project list.

Last year, the OTEC company conceived “OTECresorts” concept as a result of consultation with various resorts across the tropics. After partnering with UK-based DWR Offshore, it set out a plan to start the design and development of an offshore floating system to a desired specification which, according to Global OTEC Resources, marked the beginning of its journey to supply resorts across the tropics with renewable energy.