BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says a regional workshop on sea water air conditioning (SWAC) technology will be held during the first quarter of this year after the financial institution funded a study tour of Canada on the matter.

While the CDB did not give any indication as to the exact date or where the workshop will be held, it said that the study tour brought together stakeholders from the private and public sectors in Jamaica who were able to observe the operations of two alternative energy and eco-friendly air conditioning systems.

It said that the stakeholders, including environmental agencies, collected information about the potential and challenges of the technology and that they were also informed of the financial advantage of having a centralised district cooling network.

“In the Caribbean, air conditioning accounts, on average, for 50 per cent of the total energy consumption in commercial buildings including hotels, offices and commercial shopping enterprises. SWAC is estimated to reduce electricity consumption for air conditioning by up to 90 per cent,” the CDB said in a statement.

Robert Wright, managing director of Jamaica-based New Leaf Power, noted that the study tour was another important step towards introducing this technology in the Caribbean.

“New Leaf Power, in cooperation with other partners, wishes to introduce this technology to Jamaica and I believe that by exposing stakeholders to operational SWAC systems here in Canada, trust in the maturity of the technology has increased.

“This exercise will also help us to better understand the energy saving potential and risks during the development and implementation of SWAC in the region,” said Wright.

The CDB said that in the Caribbean, a SWAC system might draw cold seawater from a depth lower than 800 metres to a cooling station. This chilled water is then used to absorb heat from buildings and then returned to the ocean, usually at a shallower depth. Several buildings can be connected to the chilled fresh water loop, a process which replaces conventional air conditioning.

Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy Specialist at the CDB, Peter Werner, who was also part of the study tour, said that although the principle of SWAC seems simple, “a very detailed design process and commercial assessment are needed before such a system can be realised.

“At CDB, we expect to see more work being undertaken to assess the technical and financial feasibility for specific applications, where the conditions are right. Where feasible, this technology could contribute to the wider energy security objective to which CDB is committed.”

The CDB said that the study tour to Canada late last month was financed from the Canadian Support to the Energy Sector in the Caribbean Fund and the Canadian High Commission in Kingston and the Jamaica Promotions Corporation.