The plant will power the Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) based desalination plant for conversion of sea water into potable water, said officials.
New Delhi: The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous Institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), is establishing an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant with a capacity of 65kW in Kavaratti of Lakshadweep and work has just commenced, informed Minister of State for Earth Sciences and Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The plant will power the Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) based desalination plant for conversion of sea water into potable water, said officials. The capacity of the LTTD plant is 1 lakh litre of potable water per day.
The minister also informed that the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched a Deep Ocean Mission (DOM). The mission includes deep sea mining, underwater robotics, development of ocean climate change advisory services and technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity under DOM in the next few years.
The project will include design, and development of prototype manned submersible rated for 6,000-metre water depth, which includes technologies for underwater vehicles and underwater robotics.
The project will also include, design and development of technologies for mining of deep sea resources like polymetallic nodules from central Indian Ocean at a water depth of 5,500 metre.
Further, inventorisation, archival of specimens and development of DNA bank of deep-sea fauna of northern Indian Ocean through systematic sampling using Remotely Operated Vehicles will also be done under the project.
The project will see the development of the Ocean Climate Change Advisory Services for climate risk assessment due to sea level rise, cyclone intensity and frequency, storm surges and wind waves, biogeochemistry and changing harmful algal blooms in the coastal waters of India.