District Cooling From the Pacific: A Targeted Efficiency for Oʻahu - CleanTechnica

The article "District Cooling From the Pacific: A Targeted Efficiency for Oʻahu" discusses the potential of seawater air conditioning (SWAC) as an energy-efficient cooling solution within Oʻahu’s fully electrified energy system. Oʻahu’s energy framework excludes overseas aviation, maritime bunkering, and military consumption, focusing instead on electrified ground transportation, interisland aviation, and local marine transport, with fossil fuel heating replaced by electric technologies. This transition reduces overall energy demand to about 6,000 GWh per year, which serves as a baseline for evaluating energy efficiency measures and renewable resources on the island. Space cooling emerges as one of the largest electricity consumers in Oʻahu, driven by its tropical climate and dense commercial and residential buildings. Commercial HVAC systems alone consume approximately 2,190 GWh annually on the island, primarily for cooling rather than heating. Residential cooling adds an estimated 250 to 450 GWh per year, leading to a total cooling demand around