CUC is evaluating proposals from six private firms that want to provide alternative energy to the commonwealth.
These companies are New Seoul Corp., OCCEES Ocean Engineering & Energy Systems, Commonwealth Industrial Supply Co. Inc., Leminiscate Investment LLC, United Systems Engineering Co. Ltd., and Lucid Energy Technologies LLC.
Brian Horst, who has designed many industrial energy projects for over 30 years, said CUC should consider Mist Lift Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or Mist Lift OTEC.
He said this alternative energy is less expensive and efficient power than the kind of OTEC being proposed by OCCEES.
Horst said Mist Lift OTEC is a bottle-like container made of concrete and submerged in the ocean.
Inside the concrete container, he said, is a flat stainless steel plate with holes where warm ocean water vapor, or mist, can pass through.
The submerged container is connected to a vertical duct, or pipeline that goes up to the ocean surface wherein an offshore OTEC plant is situated to process output power, he said.
The plant will be hooked up to the power grid on island to distribute electricity to customers, he added.
Horst said Mist Lift OTEC will be a 24-hour energy source because the water in the ocean can never be depleted.
The project will cost between $30 million and $40 million, to set in place, depending on the power capacity that CUC will want, Horst said.
He also mentioned this estimated amount is good for a 5-megawatt power and will cost only 10 to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to the current 50 cents charges by CUC.
According to Horst, Mist Lift OTEC is different from the kind of Ocean Thermal Energy proposed by OCCEES, a Hawaii-based company.
Horst said OCCEES’ OTEC requires expensive “heat exchanger” and other mechanisms.
The Mist Lift OTEC, he said, was developed by Stuart Ridgway years ago, but has not yet been utilized commercially as it is still in the experimental stage.
According to an article written by Ridgway, early OTEC systems use giant heat exchangers (closed cycle OTEC) and enormous water vapor turbine (open cycle OTEC).
“The resource is ‘renewable.’ OTEC power is most environmentally benign, emitting no pollutants,” Ridgway said.
Horst said it might take five to six years to establish the infrastructure needed to prepare the Mist Lift OTEC system on island.
But with Mist Lift OTEC, Horst noted, “we would not be renting generators at $500,000 per month or $6 million a year and still having to pay 50 cents a month for our electricity.”
He encourages the private sector to “step up to the plate and make the investments” needed to establish this type of alternative energy.
