Gov. Linda Lingle is focused on promoting energy deals. On Nov. 18, during her Asia trade mission, she brokered a letter of intent between the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute and Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, to build a 10-megawatt Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant in Hawai'i. The state is not a party, and not one Hawai'i renewable energy company was included in the agreement.

Her press release didn't say where the plant is to be located, but it's likely to be on a ship or platform off Campbell Industrial Park. She said TITRI is to do a feasibility study and that Taiwan has a "common vision and plan to increase renewable and clean energy based on indigenous energy resources," but we don't know what TITRI will bring to the project.

Lockheed began developing OTEC 30 years ago, but it's not clear what Lockheed has been doing in OTEC in more recent years, or how important OTEC is to their defense mission. Lockheed executives are in Hawai'i, so we should know more about this soon.

WHAT OTEC DOES

OTEC creates electrical energy by heat exchange, using the difference in sea water temperature from 1,000 meters down (cold, say 40 degrees) to sea level (warm, say 80 degrees), and then transmitting or storing that energy for use at other locations.

OTEC provides "firm" (uninterrupted) power, as opposed to the nonfirm power generated by wind, solar and wave energy. The supply of OTEC power is unlimited, and it can provide power to the world indefinitely, returning only water to the ecosystem. When scaled efficiently, OTEC could be the most productive and sustainable of any of the renewables.

OTHER PLAYERS

Lockheed has asked Makai Ocean Engineering, a local ocean engineering company, to be part of its development team. Makai has been involved in the development of OTEC since the Mini-OTEC program in Kona in 1979, and has designed and engineered the offshore pipelines at NELHA. In fact, most of the OTEC R&D which has been done in Hawai'i has been done at NELHA using those pipelines.

After its construction of the 10-megawatt OTEC plant for O'ahu, Lockheed's goal is to build OTEC plants of 100 to 200 megawatts. To get there, Lockheed will need to do additional R&D on offshore pipeline and heat exchanger technologies. Given its experience, Makai is a likely choice. The pooling of talent between large and small players will be to everyone's benefit.

Reb Bellinger is the vice president of Makai. He knows that OTEC works on a smaller scale, but adds that the critical challenge is to scale it up to a greater cost-effective size. He says that "if we can get OTEC up to the 100- to 200-megawatt level, it will change the nature of renewable energy in Hawai'i."

Hans Krock, an environmental engineer who has researched OTEC for years, has organized Energy Harvest Systems with structural engineer Al Yee. They want to develop an OTEC facility at NELHA using the $19 million pipeline recently installed there. They also want to develop ocean platforms in remote locations. They are confident about OTEC — Krock says that someday 4,000 OTEC platforms on the equator could provide enough energy to power humankind. These could cost upward of $500 million each.

Steve Oney heads Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems, a Hawai'i developer which is working on contracts to build a 6-megawatt OTEC plant, with a million-gallon desalinization facility for the Navy at Diego Garcia 7 degrees above the equator. It will be using proven closed-cycle OTEC technology. It is looking for financing of more than $100-million from a consortium of European banks, which Oney says are prepared, even in these times, to lend money for qualified renewable projects.

Bob Nicholson runs Sea Solar Power of Baltimore. They have made a proposal to HECO to build a 100 megawatt OTEC facility on a platform 4 miles off Campbell Industrial Park (the shelf ends at 3 miles) near the HECO plant there. They would transmit their power directly to that plant. They have been working on OTEC since 1962 and have some 100 patents on heat exchangers and turbines, which will presumably give them an advantage.

The Lockheed and Sea Solar projects were in fact mentioned in the 50-page energy agreement signed by the state and Hawaiian Electric Company on Oct. 20, 2008. There are others, too. We want all of them to do well.

THE STAKES ARE HIGH

No wonder these players want to develop OTEC — it could be a big part of the global energy solution, and the returns could be enormous. But who will get the Intellectual Property from the Lockheed-TITRI partnership? If the state is a party or matchmaker to this new OTEC partnership, shouldn't it have at least a piece of that IP and the money then to be made?

Some people feel that renewable energy is good for the planet, so we should share the IP. But the costs, and stakes, will be huge. What do you think 4,000 platforms would cost? What would the world pay for an unlimited source of power? Those who can control energy on that scale could dominate the world.

Lingle must be careful about to whom she gives the "nod." Hawai'i has a birthright in our special environment. Doesn't that also include a birthright in our natural energy? As one Lana'i resident said of David Murdock's wind project — what's in it for us? If producers can capture billions of dollars from natural energy, what's our share?

COORDINATED POLICY

To develop OTEC and other renewables, Hawai'i should avoid both favoritism and bureaucracy. We can't afford to issue permits too easily, but we can't make producers wait until they lose their advantage or financing and set up shop elsewhere. It's the old dilemma, and it requires fair-minded, even-handed, non-political involvement. We have to work on that.

There are many competing renewables and producers trying to find a place in the sun (pun intended) — solar, wind, biodiesel, wave energy, geothermal and OTEC. Some will work out better than others. The important thing now is that we give each of them a fair chance to explore its best potential. We need to nurture each of them with access and support, give them an even playing field, and let them knit a powerful industry together.

If we play it right, we can play the role of benevolent organizer and environmental steward, and make Hawai'i a world leader in the new energy. That will not only be an honor, it will be very profitable.