SIDS DOCK and Global OTEC Resources Announce Partnership

Photo of 3 parties to signing ceremony
Photo from left to right: Hayden Ashfield, Global OTEC Resources Ltd.; Dan Grech, Director, Global OTEC Resources Ltd. (top right); His Excellency Mr. Ronald J. Jumeau, Chair, Executive Council of SIDS DOCK (bottom right)

On July 2, 2021 the Small Island Developing States Sustainable Energy and Climate Resilience Organization (SIDS DOCK) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UK-based Global OTEC Resources Limited to collaborate on the development and deployment of an offshore floating Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) concept. The ceremony took place online between representatives in the Seychelles, Jamaica, Portugal, and the UK. Global OTEC Resources’ concept aims at a small-scale deployment to reduce technological and financial risk for offshore OTEC as a first step in transitioning the 10 GW of installed fossil-fuel capacity in SIDS countries to clean power.

Dr. Al Binger, Secretary-General of the Secretariat of SIDS DOCK, noted that

Global OTEC Resources Floating OTEC technology is so innovative that it is a gamechanger, bringing OTEC and ocean energy technologies a lot closer to a realistic option for SIDS. In just one day, twenty-four (24) hours, the amount of energy that the sun puts in the tropical oceans can run our islands for decades. The ocean is an inexhaustible renewable energy source and as long as the sun exists, we will have thermal energy in the ocean.

Ambassador Jumeau noted that the partners to this MoU will work towards launching an Ocean Energy Platform at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, UK.

We will call on the international community to support SIDS in our mission. This will include mandating to deploy commercial-scale ocean-based energy technologies that are appropriate to the demands of Small Island Developing States.

This article is based on a press release provided to OTECnews.

SIDS DOCK

SIDS DOCK is a United Nations (UN)-recognized international organization established in 2015, with all the rights and privileges for addressing climate change, resilience, and energy security in small islands. SIDS DOCK represents 32 small islands and low-lying developing states across the globe, and is so named because it is designed as a “DOCKing station,” to connect the energy sector in SIDS with the global markets for finance and sustainable energy technologies. The organization’s work is coordinated by the Secretariat, in Belmopan, Belize.

Website: https://sidsdock.org/

Global OTEC Resources

Global OTEC Resources is a United Kingdom (UK)- based company, founded by Dan Grech. Global OTEC Resources has raised significant amounts of financing in the forms of grants and angel investments, and is now collaborating with small islands on multi-million-dollar low carbon investments to facilitate the wide deployment of OTEC Floating Power Plants across small islands.

Website: http://globalotec.co