Japanese experts believe Barbados stands to earn between $24.6 million and $365 million annually if it uses an ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) system to generate electricity, make “fresh” water and increase fish production.
But based on GEC Company Limited’s tabulations, the main drawback and likely obstacle is the $461.2 million to $2.4 billion in “total initial construction cost” required for such a facility.
In an Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation For Barbados paper authored by its president Professor Haruo Uehara, and engineer Peter O’Connell GEC, which is based in Nabeshima, Saga City, Japan,
OTEC is “a system for converting thermal energy into electricity by utilising the temperature difference between the surface and deep ocean water”.
With water temperature at a depth of 1 000 meters usually measuring between four and six degrees Celsius, Uehara and O’Connell said “deep waters surround Barbados and therefore have relatively easy access to 1 000 metre deep water which is necessary for the OTEC process”.
Using information “derived from various databases”, the pair identified waters 18 kilometres off Bridgetown, 15 kilometres off Speightstown, and six kilometres off the St Philip/St John area as “three initial possibilities” that “are immediately available”.
They said the first option “would directly connect to one of the largest energy consumption points in the country, the capital Bridgetown”, while the second one “is close to another large population Speightstown [and] another advantage is that it would connect to the end of the existing 24 kilovolt grid [and] “this would reduce the transmission volume and associated losses over the distance from the existing generating systems”.
In the case of the eastern one, they concluded that “with the lower population density on the east of the island and a longer distance to the 24 kilovolt connection, the overall saving compared to A and B is possibly negligible”.
“A feasibility study will confirm the exact bathymetry conditions as well as the ocean currents, temperatures and water content. Also the final consumption point for the OTEC products will be analysed. This information will pinpoint the available locations for the OTEC system. The current consumption rates are also critical in determining the correct volume and transmission methods of the different products. Also other alternatives to the overall layout will be investigated as they become apparent,” the report said. In terms of the “costing and economics” the Japanese company gave estimates for a ten megawatt, 30 megawatt and 100 megawatt facility and said the profits mentioned would be “gained as the actual generation costs of electricity and water are much lower and the fisheries is an additional by-product with very little additional costs”.
However, the prohibitive aspect was the cost of construction, which Uehara and O’Connell estimated would still be a substantial $461.2 million even if the water and fisheries aspects were excluded.
