Floating Ocean Power Prototype Survives 19 Storms
A year of offshore testing off Gran Canaria shows open-ocean durability, but the trial has not yet reported electricity output.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Energy
Global OTEC completed a year of offshore testing of its floating ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) prototype off Gran Canaria, Spain. The prototype, installed in October 2025 at the PLOCAN marine technology test site, logged 8,760 hours at sea and has since been decommissioned. The development is a completed research-stage prototype trial, not a commercial product.
Why it matters
The trials were designed to show that a floating OTEC platform and its vertical seawater intake riser can survive open-ocean conditions, a central engineering question for moving the technology offshore. The company has also identified more than 25 GW of fossil fuel capacity on tropical islands that could eventually be replaced by OTEC systems, though that figure is a projection rather than a deployment plan.
The prototype logged 8,760 hours of at-sea testing and rode out 19 named storms and a maximum recorded wave height of five meters, equivalent to a 30-metre full-scale wave. The source reports no electricity output or efficiency figures, so the trial's performance as a power generator is not yet characterized.
The players
Global OTEC
A company developing floating ocean thermal energy conversion platforms, which it has tested offshore near Gran Canaria.
PLOCAN
The Canary Islands marine technology test site where the floating OTEC prototype was installed and operated.
Horizon Europe
The European Union's research and innovation funding programme, which provided €3.5 million to the PLOTEC project.
The details
OTEC generates electricity from the temperature difference between warm surface seawater and cold deep ocean water, which drives a heat-transfer cycle that turns a turbine. The prototype is a floating platform with a vertical seawater intake riser, a long pipe that draws cold water up from depth. Keeping the platform offshore can reduce the required pipe length by 80%, which is the main engineering appeal of moving the system away from the coast.
Timeline
October 2025: The prototype was installed at the PLOCAN marine technology test site off Gran Canaria.
2022: The PLOTEC project received $3.9 million (€3.5 million) in Horizon Europe funding.
2025-2026 storm season: The prototype withstood 19 named storms during its trial period.
The Tech Race
The PLOTEC prototype's offshore trial, funded through Horizon Europe, positions floating OTEC as an effort to solve the open-ocean durability problem that has limited earlier shore-based systems. It is one of several research-stage approaches competing to make ocean thermal energy commercially viable, and the source does not name a specific rival program.
The prototype is a research-stage trial, so there is no commercial product, pricing, or deployment timeline available to consumers or utilities. Any practical effect on island power systems would depend on future commercial units, which the source does not schedule.
The takeaway
The key trajectory is that floating OTEC is moving from shore-based concepts into open-ocean engineering, with a full year of at-sea data now in hand. Watch for published electricity output and efficiency figures from the PLOCAN trial, which would show whether the platform generates power as well as it survives the sea.
Further reading
For the broader technology landscape behind this trial, see the Energy section.
