Depending on the period of the year we will probably have different guest profiles. The living quarters will all be built on a standard modular platform which can be configured as 8 simple rooms, 6 rooms with shower and toilet, 2 appartments, a combination thereof or a luxury bungalow. It will be possible to change this configuration with minimal effort in order to best adapt our offering to the demand in each category.
The employees will be housed in the same structures, these modules being standardized to reduce the construction costs.
One building will house a central kitchen serving the various restaurants, we thus avoid energy losses due to transport. To minimize losses to energy conversion, we might use a parabolic mirror to concentrate solar heat to produce high temperature steam. This steam could be stored and used to heat the kitchen appliances.
In the basement would be located the soft water reservoirs, the dessalinization plant, food stores, steam storage, storage hangars, and machine shops.
Many islands are threatened by adverse weather. The physical safety of our guests and staff being an absolute priority, it is necessary to offer adequate shelter in such circumstances, with food and water reserves and communications gear.
This building will therefore be planned so as to be converted to a shelter in case of weather alert.
We plan to offer air conditioning only if there is an absolute need. In any case we will need refrigeration for the food storage rooms.
We consider to use sea water collected below the thermocline (100 to 1000 meters below sea level) where the water temperature is a constant 4-6°C for our cooling needs. With heat pumps we will be able to produce the cold we need with minimal energy expense. The water will be returned to the sea at a depth corresponding to its new temperature to avoid affecting the ecosystem.
If the collection of some renewable energies is today relatively well developed, this production is very variable as it is dependent of climatic conditions. Our consumption varies also but as our usage peaks do not correspond to the production peaks, we need to find ways to store this energy.
We will attempt to avoid conversion and storage losses by storing energy in the most efficient form. We will avoid batteries as they have a limited lifespan and cause significant pollution when recycled.
If the island has some height, we might build water storage in altitude used to store hydraulic energy.
It is possible to produce hydrogen with saltwater electrolysis, the hydrogen can be stored as metal hydride, and the hydrogen can be reconverted into electricity and heat using fuel cells.
Hydrogen could power a ship. On land wind turbines would produce the electricity enabling hydrogen generation and storage, the hydrogen would be transferred onto the ship when docked, and aboard the ship the hydrogen would power fuel cells to produce the electricity. These technologies are in the industrialization phase and will be available on the market by 2010.
A ship has good prospects for conversion to fuel cells as there is less need for miniaturisation than a car.
Electric propulsion is now widely available for ships (diesel-electric ships, azipod technology, etc) and is available in all power ranges way beyond our requirements.
The losses due to conversions must be compensated by proper sizing of the energy production.