but it could provide significant power to several SIDS.
OTEC is only viable in the tropical seas, in areas where the thermal gradient between the surface and a depth of 1000 m is at least 22°C. Regions of the open ocean with this temperature difference, suitable for floating OTEC plants, total about 60 million km2 in area [6]. For a shore-based plant, an additional requirement is topography that allows access to very deep water (1 km or deeper) directly offshore, conditions that exist at certain tropical islands, coral atolls, and a limited number of continental sites. In the United States, potential sites include Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico [6]. Areas of the world ocean with the appropriate thermal gradient are shown in Fig. 2[1].