The five-year agreement will see Wärtsilä optimize the energy generation on the island in collaboration with Aqualectra providing a significant step towards Curaçao achieving its target of moving from its current 30 percent renewable capacity to 50 percent in 2025 and 70% by at least 2027.
To support Curaçao’s decarbonization efforts, Wärtsilä will leverage energy storage, grid balancing engines and its GEMS Digital Energy Platform to optimize energy use across the island, delivering the flexibility required to maximize existing renewable and fossil based generation assets and future renewable deployments. The partnership will also see Wärtsilä install a new 38.4 MW grid balancing power plant and a 25 MW / 45 MWh Energy Storage System.
Anders Lindberg, President of Wärtsilä Energy and EVP Wärtsilä, says, “Accelerating the renewable energy transition is at the heart of our mission at Wärtsilä and this deal showcases exactly how our combination of grid balancing engines, energy storage and optimization software can work in harmony to enable wind and solar to thrive. At Wärtsilä we are not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.”
“Our unique partnership with Aqualectra and the island of Curaçao demonstrates the benefits of connected, strategic system planning to accelerate decarbonization. We expect it to be the first of many, as we collaborate with other micro-grids, such as island nations and even heavy industries such as mining, to tackle decarbonization head-on,” Lindberg continues.
Through this partnership Curaçao residents will benefit from more affordable, sustainable, and reliable electricity supply, with Wärtsilä also delivering on-the-ground expertise to support Aqualectra’s skilled team.
The project is underpinned by rigorous short-term and long-term analysis and modelling by Wärtsilä in collaboration with Aqualectra, which has enabled the company to develop a clear decarbonization and optimization roadmap for the islanded grid.
Island nations are some of the most vulnerable places to climate change due to intensifying extreme weather and rising sea levels. Many island nations are particularly driven to decarbonize their grids, with Curaçao being a prime example of an island leading the way to prioritise flexibility and clean energy, while also increasing its resilience against global energy challenges.
The partnership between Wärtsilä and Aqualectra is a blueprint for other island nations seeking to develop flexible, resilient energy grids, enabling more renewable capacity and self-sufficiency. Wärtsilä’s technology is also very well suited for small energy grids, meaning it is well-primed to enable the decarbonization of other island nations at pace and scale.
