Sustainable energy Curacao

Curacao is an island in the Caribbean with 150.000 inhabitants. The surface of the island is 444 km², with a length of almost 60 km. And uses roughly 700000 MWh (691548 MWh in 2016) energy, which is roughly 316 MW energy. The island has the perfect conditions for almost all the existing sustainable energy producing products. Curacao has the capability to produce energy through wind, flow (stroming), sunlight, heat and more. The problem is that almost none are used for supplying energy for the island. And with the current The island has one supplier that uses diesel generators to produce almost all the energy for Curacao, while there are cleaner and more environment friendly ways to produce energy for Curacao. One of the challenges is to find the most efficient (80-20 rule) way to produce enough energy for the whole Island, this with the use of a select few sustainable energy technologies. Another challenge is to find companies who have experience in the field of sustainable energy projects. These companies can give a better indication of the financing needed for a project of this magnitude.

A plausible answer for this amount of needed energy is Solar Updraft Technology, Fueled by hot air, rather than direct sunlight. Solar chimneys present a compelling prospect for producing clean, renewable energy. How does it work? "A massively large, transparent canopy, or collector, is suspended off the ground (2 to 20 m), and the air beneath it, warmed by the sun, becomes hotter than the air outside. In the middle of the collector is a tall, slender tower. As the buoyant, warm air is drawn up through the tower, it passes through turbines attached to the tower's base that feed off the rising air's kinetic energy, powering a generator. It doesn't need sunlight to operate, just warm air, so it continues to churn out power after sundown. That effect can be easily and cheaply enhanced by covering the ground with gravel or bitumen, or burying sealed bags of water just below the surface." (National Geographic 2014) This solution has been tested serveral times in the past (for example by the company Schlaich Bergermann and Partner) and is plausible option for Curacao. Because there are locations on Curacao that have a dessert feeling to it, which is the right condition for the Solar Updraft Technology. If there is no heat than Curacao needs a back up energy production. This can be done by using the old system, using diesel fueled generators or by storing energy (for exmaple Molten salt energy storage, since Curacao is surrounded by salt water and because molten salt energy storage is also environment friendly) But in the future the back up energy can also be produced by using for example windmills, flow and wave energy from the ocean and maybe even bio energy. But that is a whole new project. -This solution this team offers is to use the sustainable opportunities, Curacao has, to produce enough energy for the island and sell the remainder of unutilised energy. -In the future energy supplying will play a more important role than now, because there are enough fossil fuels to produce energy. -Selling the unutilised energy can add an extra income for the island besides the oil raffinary (Refineria Isla Curcao B.V.) and can maybe replace it in the future. -This solution solves more than the energy problem on Curacao, it also helps the economic growth of the island. -By producing enough sustainable energy for the island reduces cost of the inhabitants, these costs will go into the economy which can allow the city and businesses on Curacao to flourish more. -The supplying of sustainable energy can create a night attraction of the city's bridge (swinging old lady) and popular buildings. Who's lights are only on during the high tourist seasons. Having this attraction everynight can create more of night life on curacao and increase tourist visits -The production of this sustainable energy can increase jobs and increase economic growth of the island. -If implementation is succesful on Curacao it can also be applied to the other islands surrounding Curacao (for example Aruba and Bonaire).