Energy and economic analysis of an ocean thermal energy conversion plant for Bangladesh: A case study

Bangladesh's surging power demand, especially in coastal regions and nearby islands, necessitates a shift towards sustainable energy sources to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG-7) objectives. This research attempts to visualize the ocean thermal energy reserves of the Bay of Bengal, with an extended focus on the marine borders of Bangladesh using advanced data analytics. Extensive data used is from a hybrid ocean coordinate model, Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model and Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (HYCOM + NCODA) at 1/12 degrees resolution, which has proven to be sophisticated and precise in providing oceanic information. Analyzing the data shows that geographically Bangladesh is feasible for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plants. A model plant is implemented at the potential location, and a Machine Learning (ML) model is trained to forecast temperature values for the future lifetime of the plant. ML forecasted results show the annual average power generated varies between 103.8 and 105.8 MW throughout the plant's life. However, a slight downward trend in generated power is observed, possibly due to climate change. The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is calculated at 0.164 USD/ kW, with an 11-year payback period. Notably, the plant registers zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, aligning with Bangladesh's SDG-13 targets.