WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao is set to become home to what is being described as the world's first hospitality business cooled by surface seawater when a new Marriott-branded hotel opens at the end of the summer.
According to Ocean Water Assisted Cooling (OWAC), the innovative cooling system will be installed at the Pen Resort and represents an international first for the hospitality industry.
OWAC technology uses surface seawater to remove heat from an air conditioning system instead of relying on conventional air-cooled or freshwater-based systems. By using the naturally lower temperature of seawater, the system requires significantly less electricity to cool buildings.
The company says the technology can reduce energy consumption for air conditioning by as much as 75 percent. In addition to lowering electricity costs, the reduced power demand allows buildings to use lighter electrical infrastructure, potentially lowering the costs of grid connections, cabling, and electrical distribution systems.
Although the application is new for the hotel sector, the technology itself is not new to Curaçao.
According to previously published information from OWAC, a seawater-assisted cooling installation has been operating at Curaçao's Ministry of Finance for more than 12 years. The Pen Resort project is intended to demonstrate that the technology can also be successfully applied on a much larger scale within the hospitality industry.
The installation planned for the Marriott-branded resort will reportedly have a cooling capacity of 3.5 megawatts, making it suitable for large hotel operations in the Caribbean climate.
Beyond hotels and resorts, OWAC says the technology can also be used in airports, hospitals, shopping centers, office buildings, apartment complexes, and even agricultural facilities such as greenhouses.
The project comes as hotels and other large commercial buildings increasingly seek to reduce energy consumption and operating costs while lowering their environmental footprint.
However, the projected energy savings cited by OWAC are based on the company's own estimates. Independent data confirming the actual energy performance and financial savings of the new hotel installation have not yet been made public.
If the project performs as expected, it could position Curaçao as a global showcase for innovative and sustainable cooling technology in the tourism sector while reinforcing the island's reputation as a testing ground for energy-efficient solutions.