The first OTEC plant, built in 1930, was at Matanzas Bay, just across the Florida straits from the Bahamas, in Cuba.

ECONOMIST: Ocean heat may be used to generate electricity

Bolting cooling facilities onto an OTEC generator, and also using some of the resulting power for desalination on islands like the Bahamas that are short of fresh water, helps tip the economic balance in favour of OTEC.

ECONOMIST: Ocean heat may be used to generate electricity