In recent years, the paradigm has shifted and ‘going green’ is no longer just a trendy tag line; it has become the standard when building in Cayman.
Increasingly, focus is shifting to eco-friendly property design by way of solar panels, geothermal cooling systems, low-flow plumbing, high-efficiency appliances and LED lighting with reduced energy bills as renewable energy equipment, such as solar panels, is duty-free for residential homeowners. Also, the ministry of sustainability has put forward a request for the cabinet to consider duty waivers for certain energy-efficient devices and materials used for construction.
CUC has multiple energy programmes to incentivize customers to contribute clean energy to the island’s energy grid. Applicants will have to pay CI$250 to be part of one of the programmes (and the application process will close as soon as the 6-megawatt limit has been reached).
The Consumer-Owned Renewable Energy (CORE) Programme has been in place for over a decade and is a net-billing arrangement, whereby customers who own renewable energy systems (like solar panels) can sell to CUC all the excess energy their system produces at a contracted rate as a credit to their CUC account, thus deducting from their electricity bills from CUC at their usual retail rates.
The Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Programme allows participating customers to self-consume energy they produce from their renewable energy systems, and in doing so avoid costs related to consumption and demand from the grid.
You now have the option to essentially “rent” your home or business’s roof space or land to CUC and requires no upfront or ongoing cost contribution and comes with the first opportunity to consume up to 100% of the renewable energy production onsite for a fixed renewable energy rate for 25-years. Similarly to the CORE programme, this will then replace the variable rate component on energy bills. Should you choose to own the renewable energy system, CUC will recover monthly payments. This programme allows more of CUC’s customer base to participate in renewable energy while hedging a portion of their energy costs as a result of renewable energy consumption.
Any customer interested in installing a renewable energy system larger than 50 kilowatts should contact CUC for more information by emailing service@cuc.ky.
The electricity regulator, The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg), is responsible for approving any additional capacity for the CORE and DER Programmes in the Cayman Islands. Customers should check the availability of capacity for the CORE and DER Programmes with their local renewable energy installer or with CUC by emailing service@cuc.ky.
Considerations When Building Green
If you are thinking about designing and building a green home, consider the following steps:
- Find a design-builder who has proven experience with green homes in Cayman
- Use key building products like Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) such as Fox Blocks which are manufactured locally, spray foam insulation, low VOCs materials and finishes, impact/insulated windows, Watersense rated plumbing and Energy Star rated appliances
- Own your own energy. With the growing demand for alternative energy sources, utilise solar energy in your home from companies like GreenTech Solar. Alternatively, try a geothermal cooling system. Companies like GeoCayman can help you cool your home much more efficiently than traditional air conditioning systems saving you substantial energy and money.
- Think about alternative methods of cooling your home. See below for ideas on how to do this.
Alternative Cooling Systems
If you are looking for a more organic and less costly method of lowering air conditioning usage, consider planting lots of foliage around your house, adopting a white or silver-coloured roof, and keeping windows and doors open during the cooler times of day to allow a breeze. If you are building a house, consider suggesting to your architect ways to face the windows and doors to be able to harness as much of the breeze as possible.
Geothermal Cooling Systems
Unlike common central air conditioning systems that distribute cool air into your home through heated gas and refrigerants, geothermal cooling systems are known to have lower operational costs and last up to 10 years longer than conventional A/C.Geothermal cooling systems work by removing heat from your home and/or workplace building, transferring it to the water pipe systems buried beneath your house or in your yard. The result of this is a cooling ‘air conditioning’ type effect that removes heat from the circulated air, transfers that heat back to your water systems in the ground and then returns the newly cooled air back into your home.
If you are looking to save on cooling costs by swapping to an energy-efficient system with a longer lifespan, GeoCayman can help:
Building Green Consultants
The following organisations can help you if you are looking to build a greener home in Cayman.
Please also refer to the Advice on Building a Home page for more information.