Puerto Rico Seeks a Fix for Its Power Woes Deep Beneath the Sea

(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico is seeking bids for the construction of a deep-ocean energy complex that officials say will push it to the leading edge of marine technology and pave the way for a new power source in the Caribbean.

Companies have until July 28 to register their interest in the Puerto Rico Ocean Technology Complex, which will use deep, chilled, nutrient-rich water off the island’s southern coast for an array of industrial applications including cooling, aquaculture and micro-algae.

The estimated $300 million complex will include an experimental 500-kilowatt ocean thermal energy conversion plant. If completed, it would be the largest generator of its type in the world and just the third one to be built, according to the Puerto Rican government.

The administration is planning to issue a request for proposals in August and have the complex running by 2027.

Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce, Manuel Laboy Rivera, said more than two dozen companies have already expressed interest in the project, known as PROTech.

“We are not reinventing the wheel,” Laboy Rivera said in a telephone interview. “There are commercial applications for this technology that have already been proven, and that’s what we are after in the short term.”

The complex, which will include research and educational facilities, would be built on public land in Yabucoa, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of the capital San Juan. It is being is modeled on similar facilities in Hawaii and Japan.

The energy plant would be powered by frigid ocean water pumped from more than a mile beneath the surface, Laboy Rivera said.

Puerto Rico, a bankrupt U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, has an ailing and fragile power grid that is heavily-reliant on fossil fuels. Currently, just 2% of the island’s energy comes from renewable sources, but it’s required by law to boost that amount to 40% by 2025 and 100% by 2050.

While the ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, plant won’t be large enough to solve the island’s power woes, Laboy Rivera said, it will be an important research tool as the commonwealth pursues its energy goals

“This would make us number one in terms of innovative ocean technology,” he said.

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