The 5th International OTEC Symposium took place on Reunion Island on November 7-9, 2017. This gathering follows the previous four in Hawaii, Malaysia, South Korea, and the Netherlands. Reunion Island is a French territory off Madagascar and hosts the Naval Energies and Technical University of Reunion’s OTEC prototype. We appreciate this year’s organizers for their hard work bringing off this successful event.
Attendees and presenters were indeed international, with France, South Korea, Malaysia, England, USA, Mexico, and Japan represented.
Presentations covered a wide variety of areas including the status of current OTEC projects, OTEC technology, and consideration of environmental impact. In addition, attendees had the option of a tour of the OTEC prototype, reception, and tour of the island.
While there were too many presentations to go into detail here, some papers based on the presentations given were provided to attendees via USB and will be made available online at a leter date. One of the major trends noted is that there seems to be a consensus that small-scale onshore OTEC is the next step in OTEC development, with several projects moving forward. Japan, Naval Energies (previously DCNS), Bardot, KRISO (South Korea), and Bluerise(Netherlands) all noted ongoing projects, while several other groups are also studying the possibilities for their countries or markets.
Professor Yasuyuki Ikegami, of the Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga also announced that the 6th International OTEC Symposium will take place in Okinawa in 2018. We look forward to seeing you there.
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