Our fearless Minister di Labor, Integration and Energy, has a passport and he makes good use of it, recently attending a Labor conference in Switzerland, and talking to “Hydrogen Specialists” and Repsol, a multi-energy provider, in Spain.
Repsol, is indeed moving towards a low-emissions future and the decarbonization of the economy but is still mostly an oil company. They talked about the tank farm of the refinery, and a possible upcoming hydrogen project, that the minister hopes to bring to the island. According to the minister, his travels, in search of alliances, will guarantee the island a successful economic future, but so far, as a fellow-parliamentarian noticed and commented, he spends his life on the road.
While the minister is trying to resurrect the 100-year-old refinery in some shape or form, a report from TNO, an independent not-for-profit research organization, dedicated to innovations stated, in May 2024: “Based on the three case studies for the islands, we share a number of general conclusions…. The relevance of the findings are applicable in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten…The most important projects for the energy transition on the islands are wind energy and solar energy projects…With the expansion of wind- and solar- energy capacity, the share of fossil fuels for electricity production can be quickly reduced on the islands. This reduces CO2 emissions and fossil fuel expenditure. More renewable electricity production also enables a sustainable transition to electric road transport, shipping and short-distance aviation.”
Meaning, we should be looking in the direction of wind and solar and less at fossil fuel, LNG and Hydrogen, which are the minister’s favorites.
Over the year, I remember, we almost had a windmill farm in Rincon, a project which never took off; we almost had an LNG alliance with a US based wannabe; We almost turned the area of the refinery into a Hydrogen valley. I am not sure what happened to that.
The above TNO report also adds that: “The wind- and solar- energy projects are profitable, but additional costs must be incurred to realize the projects.”
Yes, it costs money to save money, but in conclusion: “As in the Netherlands, wind energy and solar energy are profitable investments in Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten.”
The reports states that especially in Aruba and Curaçao, households and commercial parties are already investing in solar panels on roofs and wind energy projects.
Surprise, while the minister travels in Europe, the neighboring island of Curaçao and the Netherlands signed an agreement, for the development of floating wind turbines off the coast of the island. The Dutch will support this project with 5M Euro. Curaçao eventually wants to run entirely on sustainable energy and ultimately also export energy in the form of green hydrogen.
On the same subject of alternative energy sources, many of the hotels, businesses and households would love to exceed the allowed capacity, of the decentralized renewable electricity production and place more solar panels on their roofs, however Utilities/Elmar blocks the initiative and caps the individual and commercial capacity to expand. At a recent meeting with Utilities, when asked, the company representative indicated that they might be looking at the issue, soon, and allow more decentralized production, to alleviate the crunch of the overloaded grid, which resulted in frequent power outages, of an average nine a month. Again, investments must be made, for grid increase and battery storage, and those should be carried by public sector companies. The report cites an expense of about Euro 250M.
