Seawater Air-Conditioning (SWAC): Opportunities for Implementation | October 17, 2024
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PRESENTATIONS
During our Development Partnership H4D webinar, participants explored the findings of IRENA’s report Global trade in green hydrogen derivatives: Trends in regulation, standardization and certification.
During this PROBLUE-ESMAP webinar participants heard an overview of the Seawater Air-Conditioning (SWAC) technology, shared experiences from existing facilities in the developed world and learned about feasibility studies for three SWAC facilities in the Caribbean. The event included a discussion on next steps for possible implementation.
SWAC can reduce energy consumption for cooling by up to 90%. It taps cold, deep seawater to replace cooling from energy-intensive chillers. SWAC systems are installed with no harm to the marine ecosystem and the seawater returned to the ocean can be beneficial to coral reefs.
By tapping naturally-occurring cold seawater, SWAC contributes to the blue economy, including for small island developing states. SWAC users, such as coastal resorts, university campuses or data centers become more competitive and can act as economic hubs, without imposing additional burden on electricity supply, nor requiring increase imports of expensive fossil fuel.
The World Bank is working with partners to explore how SWAC can help developing countries meet cooling needs sustainably. Recent work in the Caribbean, supported by PROBLUE and ESMAP, includes preliminary design of SWAC facilities in Jamaica, Grenada and the Dominican Republic which show technical feasibility, lower overall costs than conventional cooling and business models combining public and private finance to develop the systems.
