DEEP Ocean Power Philippines Inc., the country’s first and lone company to harness ocean thermal energy, targets to generate as much as 3,600 megawatts of electricity in 36 prospective sites, according to company officials.

“The Philippines is one of the premier locations in the world for our technology due to the extreme thermal difference between the warm surface water and the deeper cold water ... and we have a deep shelf here in the Philippines,” noted Doppi vice president Derek T. Murray.

“We feel that the oceans here are the oil of the Philippines and so we hope to locate them ... to help reduce the cost of energy,” he added.

Murray said the company’s plan was to put up ocean thermal energy projects with an initial capacity of 20 MW each, and slowly ramp this up to cost-effective levels.

“As we progress here locally, we will increase in size up to 100 MW ( per site) with the next several projects. Our goal is to maximize and use all 36 [sites]. But as of today, we’re starting with the first two,” Murray added.

On Friday, Doppi was granted two renewable energy service contracts for the development of ocean energy resources in Anini-y, Antique and Sablayan, Mindoro, said Doppi chair Alberto V. David Jr.

For an initial capacity of 20 MW, investments for these two projects are seen to reach $66,000.

Murray said it would take Doppi—which has formed a joint venture with the US-based Deep Ocean Power Inc.—three years to complete the projects, with commercial operations to start by 2012.

He said the company was in the process of completing the feasibility studies for the two projects.

Investments required for ocean energy projects are comparable with or a little higher than the investments needed for wind and solar projects, which require $2.5 million to produce a megawatt of electricity.

Murray said that unlike these two renewable energy sources that may be intermittent, ocean energy could be a more stable source of electricity.