Floating OTEC Prototype Survives Year of Ocean Testing
The offshore ocean thermal energy conversion platform completed 8,760 hours at sea off Gran Canaria before being decommissioned.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Energy
Global OTEC completed a year of offshore testing of its floating OTEC prototype off Gran Canaria, logging 8,760 hours at sea. The platform withstood 19 named storms during the 2025-2026 storm season.
Why it matters
The trials were designed to show that a floating platform with a vertical seawater intake riser can handle open-ocean conditions, a key question for ocean thermal energy conversion. Moving the technology offshore can cut required pipe length by 80%, which the company presents as a cost and engineering advantage.
The prototype logged 8,760 hours of testing and survived 19 named storms, with onboard sensors recording waves up to five meters, equivalent to a 30-metre full-scale sea state. Comparative cost and output figures for the system were not disclosed in the trial results.
The players
Global OTEC
Global OTEC is the ocean thermal energy company that developed and tested the floating prototype off Gran Canaria.
PLOCAN
PLOCAN, the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform, is the marine technology test site where the prototype was installed.
The details
The floating platform, with a vertical seawater intake riser, was installed in October 2025 at the PLOCAN marine technology test site off Gran Canaria. OTEC technology generates electricity from the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep ocean water, and the trial was partly funded by $3.9 million (€3.5 million) from Horizon Europe in 2022.
Timeline
October 2025: Prototype installed at the PLOCAN test site off Gran Canaria.
2022: PLOTEC project received €3.5 million in Horizon Europe funding.
2025-2026 storm season: Prototype withstood 19 named storms during testing.
Late 2026: Prototype decommissioned after completing its trial.
The Big Picture
The trial extends the Horizon Europe-funded PLOTEC project from design into open-ocean operation, testing whether floating OTEC can handle the storm conditions that fixed installations avoid. The company estimates that more than 25 GW of fossil fuel generation capacity on tropical islands could eventually be replaced by OTEC systems.
If OTEC systems can be scaled, island grids that currently rely on fossil fuel generation could eventually draw on ocean temperature differences instead. The current trial demonstrates survival in open-ocean conditions but does not yet show a deployable commercial product.
The takeaway
A floating ocean energy platform surviving a full storm season is a practical test of whether offshore designs can work in rough seas. Readers following renewable energy should watch for follow-on deployments that report cost and output data.
Further reading
Explore more on Energy developments like this floating ocean thermal prototype.
