pyOTEC

pyOTEC designs ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants for best economic performance under off-design conditions, meaning seasonal fluctuation of ocean thermal energy resources.

Step-by-step guide to set up and use pyOTEC

1. If you don't have it yet, download the latest version of Anaconda
2. Install the netCDF4 library by first opening Anaconda prompt and then executing the following command

conda install netCDF4

Also install cartopy to plot the world map if needed :

pip install cartopy

3. Go to https://github.com/JKALanger/pyOTEC and download/clone the repository to your computer
4. Go to Copernicus Marine (CMEMS) https://marine.copernicus.eu/ and create an account for free (you need the account to download the seawater temperature data)
5. In Anaconda prompt, run the following command:

python -m pip install copernicus-marine-client

This installs the copernicus-marine-client which is used to download the seawater temperature data required to size the OTEC plants.

6. Login to your CMEMS account by opening a python terminal (e.g. writting "python" or "python3" in the command line), then pasting the following lines :

import copernicus_marine_client as copernicusmarine
copernicusmarine.login() 

This will create locally a file with your CMEMS username and password, and you will not have to worry about logging in in the future.

7. Open the pyOTEC.py file in your preferred Python IDE (e.g. Spyder)
8. Run the script and follow the instructions given by pyOTEC (i.e. provide the country and plant size)
9. If you want to check or change the parameters used by the model, go to file parameters_and_constants.py

Citation

When using pyOTEC, e.g. in a scientific publication, please refer to the following paper:

Langer, J., Blok, K. The global techno-economic potential of floating, closed-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion. J. Ocean Eng. Mar. Energy (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40722-023-00301-1