The state is entering a partnership with a Taiwanese research facility and Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop a 10 megawatt ocean thermal energy conversion pilot plant in Hawai'i, Gov. Linda Lingle announced yesterday.

The Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute will join in a feasibility study and will collaborate in the effort to provide renewable electricity generated from the difference in temperature between the ocean's warm surface and its chilly depths.

The ocean temperatures and the subsea terrain make the waters surrounding both Taiwan and Hawai'i superior locations for this technology, according to a news release from the governor's office. The third partner, Lockheed Martin, has developed and studied OTEC technology for more than 30 years.

"As island economies in the Pacific, Taiwan and the state of Hawai'i share very similar challenges of overdependence on imported petroleum for their energy needs," Lingle said. "Taiwan and Hawai'i also share a common vision and plan to increase renewable and clean energy generation based on indigenous energy resources."

Hawai'i currently relies on imported fossil fuel for about 94 percent of its primary energy. The balance is generated from renewable resources.

Taiwan is even more dependent on imported fuels than Hawai'i, with less than one percent of its primary supply derived from indigenous renewables.

Most OTEC research and development in recent decades has been performed at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai'i Authority at Keahole Point, North Kona. Huge pipelines bringing cold, deep ocean water to the surface enabled the demonstration of a variety of OTEC components and pilot plants.

In 1979, a closed-cycle, mini-OTEC plant off the coast of NELHA won the distinction of becoming the first such plant to generate net electricity. Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. was a partner in that effort and took part in subsequent research at NELHA.

This latest agreement with Taiwan complements the Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative, a partnership between the state and the United States Department of Energy, which is designed to move the state away from its dependence on fossil fuels and toward a clean-energy-driven economy that can be a model for other states and regions.