The developers of a project that will use cold ocean water to provide air conditioning for buildings in downtown Honolulu said they’ve landed their fourth customer for the service as they gear up for groundbreaking in the second half of this year.
Officials from Finance Factors signed a contract with Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning LLC for the service that will significantly reduce electricity use and save customers an estimated 20 percent on their air-conditioning bill, HSWAC said Friday. Finance Factors will use the service to cool its headquarters building on Bishop Street.
Other customers that have already signed contracts with HSWAC are One Waterfront Towers, Hawaiian Electric Co. and First Hawaiian Bank.
Russell Lau, Finance Factors chief executive officer, said the company joined the project because of its potential economic and environmental benefits.
"We look forward to not only reducing our cooling costs, but, most importantly, reducing our environmental footprint," Lau said.
The project, which is several years behind schedule, is now on track to break ground in the second half of this year and be operational by 2014, said Bill Mahlum, HSWAC president and CEO.
"We are delighted to see yet another company joining the increasing number of building owners and community leaders in the effort of creating a sustainable future for Honolulu," he said.
The project is expected to generate about 900 jobs and more than $200 million in spending, Mahlum said.
The project will tap frigid waters from a depth of about 1,700 feet and about four miles off the Kakaako coast. The 45-degree water will run through a heat exchanger that will chill a closed loop of fresh water. The fresh-water loop will pipe cold water to the buildings for their air-conditioning systems, while the seawater exiting the heat exchanger will be returned to the ocean.
HSWAC has selected Healy Tibbits Builders Inc. to install the offshore seawater pipes. Healy Tibbits also oversaw the installation of the deep-water intake pipe at the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii on the Kona Coast. HSWAC is in final discussions with contractors for other phases of the project: the cooling station behind the Gold Bond Building, and the underground distribution piping system and micro-tunneling in Kakaako.
