In a public meeting this week in Cayman, The Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) revealed it expects to add up to another 60 megawatts of power to the current 100 MW it produces now. The capacity additions will likely come from wind, solar, and waste-to-energy, with ocean thermal also on the table.
CUC and consultants from Pace Global are about halfway through the planning process to study options for adding capacity that will meet emissions targets laid out in the Paris Agreement on climate change. Moving away from diesel and towards renewable energy is one of the program priorites.
Gary Vicinus, with Pace, said the investments guided by this study will last 20 to 40 years. “You have to look at the implications of those decisions over time,” he said. Detailing the priorities set by CUC, Mr. Vicinus said, “Lots of people look for lowest cost.” But, he said, “cost is not the only important factor.”
He said CUC’s three factors for power generation in the coming decades are reliability, rate stability and environmental stewardship. The consultants looked at power options from wave power to nuclear energy, but both of these options have been crossed off the list, though ocean thermal energy conversion, a renewable-energy option that pulls heat from the sea, is still on the table as consultants study the long-term possibilities for Cayman.
The team has narrowed the options to six scenarios, each of which includes wind, solar and waste-to-energy, to judge the potential for electricity storage on the grid.
CUC has plans for a solar farm in Bodden Town, and site preparation is under way. The company’s third-quarter filing notes the solar project is behind schedule, but the company states that it expects to finish the 5 MW project in the second quarter of 2017.
