Monk seals and sea turtles may stall the development of a $210 million seawater air conditioning system for Honolulu.
The company developing the system, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, said it will cool up to 40 per cent of Oahu’s urban core by the end of June.
Issues such as monk seals and sea turtles getting sucked into an intake pipe are yet to be resolved.
CCN understands that a pipe that discharges large amounts of water into the ocean may have to be extended.
The company’s CEO Bill Mahlum said the project is designed to draw cold seawater from several miles offshore, which will enter heat exchangers to cool buildings, before the water is deposited back into the ocean.
The project has attracted strong support from the state, which is striving to convert to renewable energy sources.
When the air conditioning project was first announced back in 2004, it was expected to be operational by 2007, but it was delayed by the global financial crisis in 2008 and construction costs continue to rise.