An environmental study has been commissioned on a planned project to build a floating power station off the coast of North Side district [*] which would tap into the solar energy potential in the warm tropical waters around Grand Cayman.
The project, commissioned by OTEC International LLC, would be the world’s first commercial power plant using a process known as ocean thermal energy conversion.
A public meeting has been called for Sept. 23 to discuss the terms of reference for an environmental impact assessment that could lead to the licensing of the plant, designed to bring 6.25 megawatts of wholesale electric power to the territory.
The company behind the project, which is backed by Baltimore-based charitable organization the Abell Foundation, hopes to have the plant up and running by early 2017.
Their long-term goal is to be able to provide 25 megawatts of power. Cayman’s daily energy requirement is around 80 megawatts, with a peak of 100 megawatts. The Caribbean Utilities Company currently has a generating capacity of 150 megawatts.
Access to warm water is essential to the process of ocean thermal energy conversion, making it a non-starter in the continental United States. But if it proves successful in Cayman, it could become a viable renewable energy option elsewhere.
The technology converts solar energy stored in tropical oceans to utility scale power through a process that exploits the large temperature gradient between water on the surface and that found at depth.
“Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a marine renewable energy technology that harnesses the solar energy absorbed by the oceans to generate electric power. The sun’s heat warms the surface water a lot more than the deep ocean water, which creates the ocean’s naturally available temperature gradient, or thermal energy,” according to the website of the OTEC Foundation, a separate entity.
“This is a demonstrated technology that’s been around for more than 30 years,” said OTEC International President Eileen O’Rourke. “OTEC provides consistent, renewable power delivered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The possibility of an OTEC project in Cayman has been discussed for more than a decade. But recent innovations in technology have made it more affordable, prompting a renewed effort to turn the idea into a reality.
Company representatives say they have consulted with government agencies and are working with CUC with a view to inking a Power Purchase Agreement to sell renewable energy to the utilities company.
The planned project would involve the construction of an anchored platform just off shore that would transport electricity via a submarine cable to a substation, to be built close to Over the Edge Cafe in North Side.
Members of the public may review and comment on the draft document on the Department of Environment’s website (www.doe.ky), and attend a meeting to review the EIA at 7 p.m., Sept. 23, at North Side Civic Centre.
[*] Editor’s Note: Story changed to note the correct location of the proposed power station.
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Sounds clever but if this depends on the temperature difference between shallow and deep water it would have to be located off-shore. Not in the North Sound proper, which is 2 to 12 ft deep.
As we know, Grand Cayman is surrounded by a wall that drops suddenly to several thousand feet. So it would have to be anchored by the reefs.
Are they planning to drop the pipes down over the drop-off?
What would the effect be of rough weather?
Here we go again with the foolishness.
We don’t want to build a cruise dock that is necessary for our tourist products..Then we want to build a rocking floating dock subject to NorWester’s and hurricanes which will end up being either destroyed, severely compromised or wind up smashing into some store front in GT….. Now we want to put a power producing platform right in the middle of the Northsound to generate 1/6th of the necessary power to power Cayman (as of today’s requirements)…. These people’s idiotic ideas just keep getting better and better.
Either get cheaper fuel sources, different fuel sources clean coal and open another plant, or use micro nuclear. Very clean, small footprint, plenty of power per the volume of fuel and you won’t destroy/debeautify a natural marine haven.
To reassure AJ Ebanks, the article above is in error. The platform will NOT be placed in the middle of North Sound. The map here clearly shows it will be about a mile off the north coast of the island to take advantage of the deep water:
http://www.doe.ky/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Draft-ToR_2014-September-12.pdf
I’ve posted on this before but it’s worth repeating.
The promises made for OTEC are horsefeathers.
In 2007 when I was at Cayman Net News CUC proposed OTEC as a source of renewable energy and an alternative to proven alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines.
Unfortunately, all the Net News records from those days have been lost but the bottom line was that OTEC didn’t work. In fact CUC seemed to be proposing OTEC because unlike wind and solar power it posed no realistic threat to their diesel-powered generating operations.
Seven years on and there is not one viable OTEC plant operating in the world. A project in the Bahamas has been cancelled and the US government withdrew funding for an established experimental unit in Hawaii four years.
My advice – do not put one cent of public money into this project. If OTEC International think this is viable (and there still absolutely no evidence to suggest it is) make sure the whole thing is privately funded.
Bluntly, you would be doing better to put money into solar, wind and other less capital-intensive options and that is not my opinion – it came from Jean-Michel Cousteau when I interviewed him at the Ritz-Carlton in 2007.
At 1.5 megawatts each, CUC (or others) could have put up 16 wind turbines! Correct me if I’m wrong, but do we not have prevailing winds from east to west?
Don’t let the bigwigs fool you. It’s a show to say that they care, are thinking about it, want us to know that they are, but in the end will not do a damn thing about it.
Seriously, how much real estate would it take to put up wind turbines in an allocated position in East End.
(No offense East Enders) – I’m not speaking of destroying your houses, roads or agriculture; I’m merely talking about the iron shore we live on.
Sorry if I’ve offended. But it’s my personal opinion.
CUC=JOKE