Page 72 - CARILEC CE Industry Journal_Oct_2019

Assessment of the Performance

of Solar Energy Installations

in Curaçao

- Ronald Lieuw-Sjong, Managing Director, Next Step Consulting LLC, Curaçao

INTRODUCTION The island now gets 30% of its energy from wind power.
Curaçao’s goal of obtaining 30% of its energy from
renewable sources in 2020 has been achieved in 2017.
Curaçao is an autonomous member of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands located off the coast of Venezuela. Curaçao, Solar energy
like many island nations is highly dependent on imported
fossil fuels (more than 95% of the island’s electricity is In 2011, Curacao launched a net metering program for
generated using petroleum-based fuels), leaving it distributed wind and solar generation systems.
vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations that directly Residential systems smaller than 10 kilowatts (kW) and
impact the cost of electricity.
commercial systems smaller than 100 kW were eligible
to participate. At the same time, large commercial
The island has a population of 146,836 on a total area of customers could apply for a feed-in tariff for systems up
444 sq. km. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is to 1 MW in size.
$3.128 billion U.S. dollars (USD). The Share of GDP
Spent on Fuel and Imports Electricity is 4.2%. The GDP On Jan. 1, 2015, the net metering regime was replaced
Per Capita is $15,000 USD. with a feed-in tariff on all residential and commercial

installations. The compensation rate is roughly
Renewable Energy in Curaçao
1
$0.16/kWh for energy exported to the grid. The change
also included a fixed monthly capacity charge of roughly
Wind energy $9/kW for residential systems and $18/kW for
commercial systems, which have provoked lawsuits from
Curaçao has a long history with wind energy. It started in the renewable energy sector.
with a 12-turbine, 3-MW facility at Tera Kora in 1993. In
2000 an 18-turbine, 9-MW installation at Playa Kanoa
was commissioned. Since Curacao features some of the
best wind energy resources in the Caribbean, annual OBJECTIVES OF THE REPORT
capacity factors reached as high as 61% at Playa Kanoa
in 2002. In January 2019 the author initiated a study regarding the
performance of solar energy installations on the island.
To better utilize these excellent wind resources, a
renewable project developer, NuCapital, purchased both The objective of this study is summarized below:
sites and repowered them, replacing the existing
generators with five 3-MW Vestas turbines at each site. To estimate financial and technical KPI’s of solar energy
The combined 30 MW between the two sites was installations installed at households and commercial/
formally commissioned in July 2012 and is expected to industrial companies on the island.
provide roughly 20% of the island’s energy generation.
In 2017 the wind farm at Terra Kora II was inaugurated, The period studied was the year 2018.
it comprises of five wind turbines with an installed
capacity of 17.25 MW.

70 CE INDUSTRY Journal