Aruba Moves To a Greener Future
Both Aruba and Curacao have big oil refineries spewing tons of pollutants across the blue Caribbean skies.
The Tera Kora and Playa Kanoa wind farms in Curacao, for example, will soon put out a combined 30 megawatts of clean power, and Aruba also is building a 30 megawatt wind farm. These will be a great legacy for future generations of residents of two islands where steady trade winds makes alternative energy projects like these a natural fit.
Aruba has announced that work has begun on the island’s $90 million renewable energy project. Construction had broken ground in late-June at Vader Piet, the eastern part of the island, which has been designated as the location of 10 giant wind turbines with a potential of generating a total of 30 megawatts of renewable energy. This project is an investment by the Danish company, VESTAS, which in turn will sell electricity to WEB Aruba NV, the island’s water and power company.
This project is one of many recent upgrades in Aruba ’s effort to be less dependent on fossil fuels, to lessen the increasing demand on the local plant, and to help preserve and protect the island’s environment.
The wind turbines are expected to generate an estimated 18 megawatts total based on the flow of the island’s constant trade winds. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2009 and work is already under way with the necessary lines being set in place, running from Vader Piet all the way to WEB Aruba ’s headquarters in Balashi.
WEB Aruba has also put online the first Seawater Reverse Osmosis water plant generating 8,000 tons per day at a rate of 75 percent efficiency compared to the previous system.
The company continues to face Aruba ’s needs and the challenges with state of the art facilities and equipment, latest technological advances, highly qualified personnel, and continuous improvement of service, efficiency and reliability of its operations. During the last decade, WEB Aruba has invested approximately $250 million to upgrade, modernize, and expand its water production and electricity generation.