Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a Renewable Energy Technology (RET) with a global theoretical potential of up to 30 TW. However, OTEC's economic potential is unknown as it is still an immature technology with no commercial plant operating. This paper reviews recent academic and industrial literature since 2005 to provide an overview and critical discussion of current practices in assessing OTEC's economics. Seven knowledge gaps are identified; (1) Current economic analyses focus on individual plants instead of the collective economic potential within spatial boundaries; (2) Natural, location-specific influences on the real net power output are mostly omitted. There is uncertainty about (3) the capital costs on both system and component level as well as the (4) operational costs and properties like useful lifetime. (5) The impact of interest rates and its selection are often not argued for in literature. (6) Technological learning is predominantly omitted in OTEC literature and if treated, it deviates from insights on technological learning. (7) Economic analyses are mostly limited to the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), while other tools like payback period and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) are neglected. These shortcomings originate mainly from the lack of experience and long-term operational data. For each knowledge gap a recommendation for future research is proposed resulting in a research agenda on OTEC and its economics.

海洋热能转换（OTEC）是可再生能源技术（RET）具有高达30 TW的全球理论潜力。但是，OTEC的经济潜力未知，因为它仍然是一种不成熟的技术，没有任何商业工厂在运营。本文回顾了自2005年以来的最新学术和工业文献，以概述和批判性讨论当前评估OTEC经济的做法。确定了七个知识差距；（1）当前的经济分析重点是单个植物，而不是空间边界内的集体经济潜力；（2）通常会忽略自然位置对实际净功率输出的影响。关于（3）系统和组件级别的资本成本以及（4）运营成本和属性（如使用寿命）的不确定性。（5）利率的影响及其选择通常在文献中没有论证。（6）在OTEC文献中主要省略了技术学习，如果对其进行处理，则会偏离对技术学习的见解。（7）经济分析主要限于平准化的电费（LCOE），而其他工具（如投资回收期和内部收益率（IRR））则被忽略。这些缺点主要来自缺乏经验和长期的运营数据。针对每个知识差距，提出了有关未来研究的建议，从而形成了有关OTEC及其经济学的研究议程。