By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Alternatives to the current design of Baha Mar’s proposed $102.3 million Seawater District Cooling (SDC) plant are not viable, its proponent arguing that the project has a “net benefit” and will cause only minimal coral loss in “an already degraded area”.

Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation (OTEC), which will construct, own and operate the SDC plant under a long-term agreement with the $2.6 billion Cable Beach resort developer, in a supplemental analysis to its already-submitted Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) explained why it rejected several different set-ups for the project during the planning stages.

For instance, OTEC said it had considered locating the system’s pumping station at Arawak Cay, rather than the chosen Long Cay site, but rejected this because the former was potentially earmarked as the spot for Baha Mar’s mega yacht marina.

And, if OTEC’s subsidiary, OTEC BM, decided not to go ahead with the project, Baha Mar would lose the potential economic benefits resulting from a 90 per cent reduction in its air conditioning-related energy costs.

Without the SDC system, the analysis said Baha Mar would be forced back to its original plan of installing seven electricity-driven centrifugal refrigeration compressors, each weighing 1,300 tones, on its resort campus. A cooling tower would also have to be installed on the roof of its Central Utility Plant (CUP).

OTEC added that in the absence of its SDC plant and pipeline, which will supply Baha Mar’s air conditioning needs using the chilling capacity of deep sea water, the resort developer would need to dig six extraction and injection wells to deal with the volume of cooling water required.

And the resort developer would be forced to consume an extra 37,489 Megawatt house (MWh) of electricity, and 2.645 million gallons of oil, annually in generating the required power, something that would eat significantly into its bottom line through the extra cost burden.

The environment, OTEC said, would also suffer from the extra 71.64 million tones of carbon dioxide created annually by Baha Mar’s electricity reliance, plus the use of 25,000 pounds of refrigerants in the chillers.

“Use of the cold seawater system proposed as part of the SDC system would allow for the elimination of the seven electric compressor-driven refrigeration systems and the cooling towers from the CUP,” the OTEC assessment said.

“In addition, the SDC system would also provide cooling to the Sheraton and Wyndham resorts, allowing for the elimination of the existing compressors and cooling towers at these locations as well. OTE BM has estimated that the conventional cooling system would require 42,837 MWh of electricity per year to generate the 12,000 tons of air conditioning that the Baha Mar Resort, and the existing Sheraton and Wyndham resorts, would require.”

Further extolling the virtues of its project, OTEC added: “The use of the SDC system instead of the originally planned centrifugal compressor systems, and their associated cooling towers, would allow Baha Mar to reduce its cooling-related electrical use by almost 90 per cent. “Operation of the SDC system would avoid the purchase and consumption of 59,312 barrels (2.5 million gallons or 9.4 million litters) of oil per year, and the subsequent release of 36,408 tons of CO2 emissions each year.

“Using the SDC system would also allow Baha Mar to significantly reduce its use of the refrigerants (HFC-134a) in the conventional cooling system, reducing the impacts of associated releases of greenhouse gases during routine maintenance activities.”

OTEC’s supplemental analysis added that installation of the pipeline taking water across Goodman’s Bay, from the Long Cay pumping station, to the Baha Mar resort campus would only impact 1,200 coral organisms. That number, its study said, would be reduced further via unspecified mitigation measures.

“The SDC is a net project benefit in most areas of associated measurement,” OTEC’s analysis added. “It reduces the electricity required to cool the facility as compared to the electrical chillers that would otherwise be required.

“In doing that it reduces the amount of fuel oil burned to generate that electricity. Reduction in the fuel oil has a direct reduction in the products that are emitted from the combustion, including carbon dioxide. The small amount of coral loss, from an already degraded area, will be mitigated through a relocation plan to be implemented by the project.”

Explaining that the SDC had to be constructed close to the Baha Mar resort campus it was designed to serve, OTEC said there were “various limitations” when it came to picking the route for the pipeline between Long Cay and Goodman’s Bay.

Given the numerous telecommunications cables that crisscross the Goodman’s Bay floor, the analysis said OTEC had little choice but to run its pipeline to the east of them. An alternative route, bringing the pipeline ashore on Baha Mar’s property, was assessed, but this would require it to cross six communications cables. Installing it under these cables, in the sea bed, was seen as involving “an undesired level of difficulty and risk of damage to the cables”.

After the pipeline came onshore, OTEC said various potential routes were rejected because of the potential impact on the beach; the presence of other utilities; construction impacts on traffic flows; or the fact they crossed land owned by other resorts and persons.

In addition, the Government had warned that “no road damage would be permitted regardless of repair plans” to West Bay Street, forcing the pipeline to be run within the golf course area. It is supposed to be constructed between the existing course’s destruction and its replacement’s construction.

When it came to the pumping station, which is required to transport the seawater to the heat exchangers on the Baha Mar campus, OTEC said Arawak Cay was rejected as a potential location because it was designed “for use as either maritime industrial use or as a potential site for a mega yacht marina site for the Baha Mar resort project”.