The world's first known seawater district cooling, or SDC, system will be utilized on the $3.5-billion Baha Mar Resort project, currently under construction in Nassau, Bahamas. The $100-million, 12,000-ton system, developed by Ocean Thermal Energy Corp., Lancaster, Pa., will service the 3.5-million-sq-ft resort’s chilled-water needs with 40º F seawater drawn from a depth of more than 3,600 ft in the open Atlantic Ocean, off the New Providence Island Oceanic Shelf.
DCO Energy LLC, Mays Landing, N.J., the project’s engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, is designing the system, which will include four 500-hp turbine deep-well pumps to draw 25,000 gallons of seawater each minute through a 15,000-linear-ft HDPE pipeline, the outside diameter of which is 55 in. The water will be pressured to 100 lb and circulated through the 1,000-acre gaming and entertainment resort complex via a closed-loop system.