WILLEMSTAD - The deep-sea water project to provide cooling to Zakito District in Otrobanda, Willemstad is in the offing, but financing is still a long way off. This is according to Michiel Wildschut of Emmet Green on the website warme365.nl.
The project aims to connect all suitable buildings in the Rif and Zakito areas, such as the Dreams resort, WTC Curaçao, the Curaçao Medical Center and the Renaissance hotel. It uses seawater 850 meters deep and a temperature of about six degrees through a six kilometer pipeline to directly cool buildings, reducing CO2 emissions by 96%. Only ten percent of the energy is required compared to domestic air conditioning systems. Moreover, harmful substances for the ozone layer are no longer needed, as is now the case and energy is supplied at a cheaper cost.
On January 21, 2019, a letter of intent was signed with the Curaçao Medical Center in the presence of Prime Minister Rutte. With that, the project could start.
The cool case
“The permits have been received and there is support from the government. There are benevolent customers with contracts to want to purchase the cooling. Basically everything is ready to go, but there are problems with financing. This one was all around before corona pandemic. Everything was shut down due to the lockdown. We are now in the process of restarting financing, says Wildschut.
Two projects are underway in Amsterdam with water that is pumped from a depth of about forty meters. In the Zakito project, the pipes go twenty times deeper into the water to a depth of 850 meters.
The reason for going so deep is that in addition to the temperature of six degrees Celsius at that depth, the water is also much purer. “That also makes it suitable for use in agriculture,” says Wildschut.
Small Island Nations
Gilbert Gouverneur, managing director of Zakito District Cooling project says that deep-sea water is one of the most reliable, sustainable and cost-stable energy sources in the world. Especially for island nations, deep seawater is a valuable source of growth.
With large scale seawater projects like this it will be possible not only to provide reliable (hurricane and tsunami proof), sustainable and cost-effective refrigeration for many customers, but also to develop the spin-off potential that all vegetables (greenhouses) and seafood (aquaculture) for the island, a potential new economic pillar for Curaçao.
Deep-sea water technology is a logical option on the way to green and more self-sufficient islands, independent of foreign influences such as the fuel and food markets.
Economic benefits
According to Wildschut, the Zakito project should kill three birds with one stone. It must provide more employment, a saving of 95 percent CO2 emissions and there must be an economic impact.
Thanks to the high oil price, the business case is improving considerably. If it were the Netherlands, the financing would have happened long ago, Wildschut thinks. This is a simple case, there is no complicated technique involved. We are ready to start.
The investment of approximately $50 million in this project, in addition to macroeconomic savings of $4 million per year due to exchange rates, will open the potential of a new economic pillar for the island with 400-600 new jobs and a direct and indirect economic impact of approximately $100 million per year.
But the current crisis is hindering the international and local financing institutions from getting involved in the Zakito District Cooling project.
As soon as additional risk cover, such as a temporary bridging or guarantee has been arranged, construction will start.
Zakito District Cooling is under development and will be built, owned and operated by an international consortium led by Ecopower International (Curaçao), consisting of Curaçaose Wegenbouw Maatschappij (CWM, Curaçao), Deerns (Netherlands), Civil Engineering Caribbean (Curaçao) and DEVCCO (Sweden). For engineering activities, the parties work together with local and international expert engineering, construction and consultancy firms with specific knowledge, such as Makai Ocean Engineering (Hawaii).