This document provides an overview of SWAC (Seawater Air Conditioning) technology. It discusses the technical principles, including pumping deep seawater up to a cooling station via insulated pipes before distributing the cold water to customers. It highlights the large energy savings potential of SWAC, with a coefficient of performance over 30 compared to 3-4 for conventional chillers. The document also examines the market potential for SWAC in the Caribbean, where energy costs are high and countries are vulnerable to climate change, noting most islands have suitable ocean access for the technology.

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SWAC TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
Technical Principles of SWAC | Energy Saving Potential | Market Potential
Remi Blokker, CEO Bluerise, Delft, Netherlands
Diego Acevedo, VP BusDev Bluerise, Aruba

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Agenda
Introduction – Diego Acevedo
Technical Principles of SWAC – Remi Blokker
Energy Saving Potential – Diego Acevedo
Market Potential – Remi Blokker
Q & A

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Oceans: largest solar collector and energy storage
Ocean Thermal Energy: highest potential when comparing all ocean energy technologies

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Technical principles of SWAC
Water is pumped up through a
large diameter pipe from the
deep ocean to a cooling station
Heat (cold actually) is transferred
in the cooling station to a
distribution network consisting of
insulated pipes
Each customer is connected to
the network
A customer substation is used to
transfer the cold to the
customer’s site

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Cold water pipe
Pipeline is made of high density poly-
ethylene (HDPE)
Pipe will be towed to holding area
from manufacturing location
Pipe will be assembled at holding
area and towed to site
Pipeline will be lowered to seafloor,
typically using a so-called S-lay
Pipeline will be subsurface along the
shoreline (trenched or tunneled)
Pipeline has a lifetime of +30 years

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Pump station
Shore landing can be dredged, drilled
or tunneled.
Either a dry or wet pit/reservoir can
be used, requiring either submerged
pumps or a subsurface pump station
inside a compact concrete pit
Seawater pumps are used in a
redundant manner and require little
energy. Optionally, this energy could
be supplied by an OTEC generator in
tandem with the SWAC

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Cooling station
The cooling station is equipped with a
series of heat exchangers, which are
used to chill a fresh water loop. Salt
water is never in contact with customer
installations.
Cooling station should be situated at a
height close to sealevel, to minimize
pumping power
Cooling station will house backup
chillers to ensure peak capacity and
high uptime and provide redundancy

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Distribution network
The distribution network consists of a
series of feed and return lines,
consisting of insulated pipes, in
various diameters
It is important to correctly balance
the system in terms of efficiency and
cost. Using too small diameters will
result in higher pumping costs, too
large diameter will result in a higher
investment

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Curaçao Airport projected SWAC Network

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Customer substation
The customer substation, also known as
energy transfer station, is where the cooling
is supplied to the customer through a heat
exchanger
The substation contains all the required
control and sensors to ensure correct
pressure, temperature and flow speeds of
the supply and return system
Metering of the customer’s energy usage is
also performed in the substation
The substation saves space and frees the
customer of maintenance

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Automation
The cooling plant, pump station and
distribution system are typically
controlled by a SCADA system
Plant can be operated remotely. Most
functions of e.g. the Amsterdam
district cooling networks can be
accessed by operator using
smartphone
Integrated metering and billing
Sub-metering of individual users
possible

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Energy usage of air-conditioning
The energy usage of a chiller/cooling system is
expressed as COP, Coefficient of Performance.
COP indicates the amount of units of cooling
one unit of electricity can provide.
Typical compressor based chillers in the
Caribbean obtain COPs of between 3 and 4
The warm, humid air limits these chillers to
obtain higher efficiency, e.g. evaporative
cooling does not add much to the efficiency
because of the high dew point temperature
Cooling to relatively warm water, e.g. surface
seawater or a well, can increase COP to a little
over 4

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Energy usage of SWAC
The energy usage of SWAC is primarily going to at
one side the seawater pumps to transport the deep
seawater and on the other side to the distribution
pumps to distribute the cold fresh water to the
customers
Depending on the temperature of the deep seawater
and also on the capacity of the deep seawater pipe,
some additional cooling might be required using
confentional chillers, also requiring energy
The COP of a well performing SWAC system can
easily achieve above 30, meaning that 10 times more
cooling is provided per energy unit than for a chiller
with a COP of 3. This is why SWAC can save up to
90% of the energy required.

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Cost reduction potential
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Electricity Rate - Jamaica (USD/kwh)

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LCOC =
CAPEX +
OPEXt
(1+WACC)tt=1
n
å
Cooling_deliveredt
(1+WACC)tt=1
n
å
Cost of cooling is based on the balance
between system dimension (driving CAPEX) and
current and future demand
Design for expansion -> potential for decrease
in cooling cost in time
Simplified levelized cost of cooling formula:
Cost of Cooling

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Cost of Cooling comparison
Medium-sized project

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CO2 Savings Potential
Source Estimated GHG Emissions
Diesel - HFO ~0.6 kg-CO2 /kwh
Coal ~0.8 kg-CO2 /kwh
Example a district cooling system of approximately 12,000 peak tons of
A/C capacity on an island with Diesel or HFO based power grid would
save over 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year

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Key benefits
Customer Benefits
Energy reduction – 80-90% savings on cooling power
Reduced cooling costs
Elimination of price volatility – long term contracts
Environmentally benign
Less maintenance
Plug-and-play
Lower costs
District Benefits
Enabler for growth and overall economic development
Lower costs of cooling can attract other industries/activities
Reduce A/C peaks for utility

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Market Potential
Energy for Heating –
stabilizing
• Energy savings – insulation
• Climate Change
Energy for Cooling – growing
• Increasing prosperity
• Climate Change
M. Isaac and D. P. van Vuuren, 2009

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Context - Caribbean
“This region has some of the
highest energy costs in the
world.
Caribbean countries are
particularly vulnerable to the
effects of climate change and
we have to act now.”,
US President Obama, CARICOM
summit, April 2015

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Almost all Caribbean countries have good access for SWAC & OTEC
*NB, eastern side shown, western side also has good access
Context - Caribbean

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Techno-economic Potential
Online OTEC resource assessment
tool:
my.oceanpotential.com
Global datasets provide great
insights in the potentially available
resource for any given location

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Fossil fuels
• Most Caribbean countries do not have fossil resources and need to import
• Serious energy security risks
• LNG & CNG do not change this
• Fossil fuels emit large amounts of greenhouse gas
• Low-carbon fossil a false hope?
Nuclear – not sustainable, and requires scale that is probably prohibitive for Caribbean
Renewables – only real option for sustainable, energy-secure, future
• Hydro – mature, very dependent on local conditions
• Wind – mature, intermittent
• Solar – mature, intermittent
• SWAC, mature, baseload
• OTEC, near-commercial, baseload
• Geothermal – semi-mature, baseload, very dependent on local conditions,
considerable risk with drilling
• Biomass – mature, but arguably non-sustainable, large land usage, competing with
food
Renewable Energy Options in Caribbean

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Island renewable energy mix example
Aruba case

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one week
Power(MW)
© Bluerise BV
Island renewable energy mix example
Energy mix with intermittent renewables

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one week
Power(MW)
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Island renewable energy mix example
Energy mix with intermittent and baseload renewables

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Learning Curve
Wind and solar price decrease in time

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Techno-economic Feasibility
Rough Indicators:
Deep sea within ~10km from coastline
The closer the better
Concentrated cooling loads within 10km from coast > 3000 tons of A/C
The larger the better
Ideally large buildings with centralized A/C units (e.g. Chillers)
Potential customers:
Hotels + Resorts, Airports, Data Centers, Commercial centers, Big
Box stores, Housing complexes, Industry

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Project Enablers
Parallels to Solar/Wind energy financing, with the difference of having a
multitude of customers, instead of one PPA contract
Infrastructure utility type of investment = Need for long term contracts
Take or pay contracts possible, need for credit worthy local entity
BOOT concessionary contracting, shift development and construction
risk to private sector while optimizing long term energy pricing
Systems can be dimensioned to current need but more cost efficient to size for
future demand. Demand growth risk
Innovation can benefit from grants for EIA, capacity development, de-risking in
terms of site, permitting, regulatory framework, lower cost of capital
translating into lower cost of cooling to the end-users.

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Other Market Opportunities
Virtually free of pathogen
deep seawater is ideal for
keeping brood-stock and
the growing of high value
fish.
Seawater cooled
greenhouses allow to grow
crops that normally only
grow in more temperate
climates

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Other Market Opportunities
The cold water found in the deep ocean is a key enabler for a broad
range of sustainable applications.

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Thank you
Q&A