I found my vacation week on the island of Bonaire not only a wondrous diving and snorkeling experience, but interesting from an energy standpoint. At home in newton MA, I sit on the local energy commission, and am very interested in both the ecological and financial advantages of alternative renewable energy sources.

As you know, Bonaire is a desert island; very little rainfall, always warm or hot. The desalination plant supplies all of the potable and most of the water needed to irrigate non-indigenous plants.

The wind is constant ..?.. a 15 - 20 knots. I noted that the saltworks uses small windmills to power the pumps used to bring seawater into large flat evaporation beds. A mangrove forest eco center on protected lands, uses only solar and windpower for all of their needs.

But the rest of the island appears to rely on electricity generated by oil for power, which is delivered by Venezuelan tankers to the far north shore of the island. There have been several oil spills resulting, according to my dive boat leader.

It would seem to me that the entire island population could easily be served by wind power? - a farm about the size of the one Cape Wind proposes for MA. Bonaire seems like the perfect test site - there is much open shore land and outback with constant tradewinds.... the entire island is a designated marine park, dependent on tourism which draws a large diving population, so protecting the reefs is in everyone's interest.... Both water and electricity are precious, and signs are everywhere encouraging conservation.

The oil tanks could be nearly abandoned... Of course the Dutch may need to finance such an investment, or the island government could bond the up front cost - the pay back in energy savings would be quick!!

Just wondering what it would take to make such a project happen, and whether such a test case would be useful to us up here in MA/ states. ??? We do have some installations, such as in Hull, MA which is about to celebrate its 5 millionth kilowatt hour!!

You could be a 100% solar powered island!! Now there's a tourist attraction!! you could host the next world conference on global warming!!

Wanted to make this comment aside from the main thrust of your idea: The oil tanks (BOPEC) are storage tanks for transfers from different tanker ships going to different ports. It's a separate operation from the oil used to power the island.

Anyway, right on, wind power!

Also, Welcome to BonaireTalk, Deborah. There was another thread a while back about this subject. Try keyword search... :-)

But isn't the electricity generated at the desalinization plant? As part of the plant operation and there was a contract that everyone must use its electricity in order to keep it operating? No electricity, no water?

(Message edited by jpwahlig on March 7, 2005)

John, Deborah, Niki: I just found this thread - a year later! Oh well. Check out "Local Items" - I started a thread there in June '06 called "Alternative Energy", and got some interesting responses. This is a topic I'm also very interested in. Were you able to find out any more about the desal plant electricity arrangement? Deborah, do you have any information about grants, etc. that could be gotten to help Bonaire implement any kind of sustainable technology, even on a small scale (ie dive resort or apartment complex)? As always, money is a big issue.