OTEC takes center stage in the Netherlands

The 4th International OTEC Symposium will this October bring together industry experts, NGO’s and governments from all over the world to the Netherlands to discuss the state of the ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) industry.

The two-day event will this year go beyond research and technology development towards highlighting the market developments and identifying the missing pieces crucial for more rapid deployment of OTEC systems.

The program is expected to address the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead in all phases of OTEC development.

The first day of the OTEC Symposium 2016 will be held in the Science Centre Delft, which is part of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).

Following the welcoming address by Tim van der Hagen, the President of the Executive Board at TU Delft, the attendees will get a chance to hear about the latest OTEC developments from the industry representatives coming from Europe, US, Japan, Malaysia, and Korea.

The various speakers to be featured in multiple sessions include Remi Blokker, CEO Bluerise, Yasuyuki Ikegami, Professor and the Head of the OTEC division at the Institute of Ocean Energy at Saga University in Japan, Hyeon-Ju Kim Head of Research Center at KRISO, and Akbariah Mohd Mahdzir, Deputy Director UTM Ocean Thermal Energy Centre in Malaysia, among others.

Other OTEC developments taking place around the world will be brought closer to the public by Tristan Urtizberea, Project Manager at Akuo Energy who will discuss the 16MW NEMO project Akuo Energy is developing together with DCNS off Martinique, and Françoise Dubois from DCNS, who will discuss the Martinique trials, and heat exchange performance in a different session.

In addition to other sessions and speakers lined up for the first day, Harold Lever, Founder of Archimedes Solutions, will be speaking about OTEC technology and project developments in the Pacific Ocean, while the commercialization and financing of OTEC projects will be covered by Ted Johnson, Senior Vice President and Executive Director at Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation.

The second day of the OTEC Symposium will be held at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, as a side event of the annual Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC).

It will feature a keynote address by Fabien Cousteau, an aquanaut and ocean conservationist, who will speak about the sustainability of OTEC as a strategic advantage.

OTEC standardization and certification will be covered by Martin Brown, General Manager at Aberdeen Aqualis Offshore, and Laura-Mae Macadré, Marine Renewable Energy Product Manager at Bureau Veritas – Marine & Offshore Division.

The second day will also feature a panel session, to be chaired by Emanuele Taibi from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), that will discuss ocean power as a potential solution to achieve 100% renewable energy on islands. The panel participants include Kelly Cayocca from IEA-OES, Felix Leinemann from the European Commission, Diego Acevedo from Bluerise, and Clem Bibo from the Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

The full program for the OTEC Symposium, to be held from October 25 – 26, 2016, can be viewed here.