---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 9004"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "9004"
heading: "Pilot and demonstration plants"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/9004"
units:
  - "Chapter 98 — Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Research and Development"
---

# §9004. Pilot and demonstration plants

- (a) **Initiation of program—** The [Secretary](/usc/42/9008.md?p=3) is authorized to initiate a program to design, construct, and operate well instrumented [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) facilities of sufficient size to demonstrate the technical feasibility and potential economic feasibility of utilizing the various forms of [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) to displace nonrenewable fuels. To achieve the goals of this section and to facilitate development of a strong industrial basis for the application of [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) system technology, at least two independent parallel demonstration [projects](/usc/42/13641.md?p=2) shall be competitively selected.
- (b) **Demonstration program goals—** The specific goals of the demonstration program shall include at a minimum—
  - (1) the demonstration of [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) technical feasibility through multiple pilot and demonstration plants with a combined capacity of at least one hundred megawatts of electrical capacity or [energy product equivalent](/usc/42/9008.md?p=2) by the year 1986;
  - (2) the delivery of baseload electricity to utilities located on land or the production of commercially attractive quantities of energy product; and
  - (3) the continuous operation of each pilot and demonstration facility for a sufficient period of time to collect and analyze system performance and reliability data.
- (c) **Financial assistance—** In providing any financial assistance under this section, the [Secretary](/usc/42/9008.md?p=3) shall (1) give full consideration to those [projects](/usc/42/13641.md?p=2) which will provide energy to United States offshore [States](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14), its territories, and its possessions and (2) seek satisfactory cost-sharing arrangements when he deems such arrangements to be appropriate.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–310, § 5, July 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 943.)