Exploring innovation on my home island: OWAC at The Pyrmont Hotel, Curaçao

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the construction site of The Pyrmont Hotel in Pietermaai, Willemstad—soon to be a stunning luxury all-inclusive resort under Marriott’s Autograph Collection. Nestled between the beautifully restored historic landmarks Cerro Bonito and Kas di Pueblo, the 300-room hotel (including around 25 heritage suites) promises rich cultural integration, elegant neoclassical architecture, and inviting new amenities such as restaurants, bars, a ballroom, spa, fitness center, dual pools, and a 225-meter coastal boardwalk.

What caught my curiosity, though, was the site’s ambitious environmental innovation: OWAC (Ocean Water Assisted Cooling), developed by Tony van Sprang of Omega Engineering, harnesses surface seawater—rather than air or potable water—for efficient and sustainable HVAC cooling. Tony and the developers are implementing a technology with a proven track record—over 12 years in operation at Curaçao’s Ministry of Finance—now scaled up to deliver 3.5 MW of thermal cooling capacity for the hotel’s 300 rooms.

Tony van Sprang (OMEGA Engineering) with Peter Scheijgrond (Bluespring) next to the OWAC chillers at The Pyrmont

Tony explained how the OWAC system addresses two big challenges of seawater cooling—corrosion and biofouling—through innovative filtration, ionization, and material selection. What’s so interesting is that OWAC enables a COP between 5–8, compared with 2–3 for conventional air-cooled systems, translating to over 50 % electrical savings, and up to 75 % lifecycle cost reduction.

Walking along the soon-to-be breakwater that will shelter the beach, guide the outfall, and shape a promenade overlooking the reef, I felt a powerful connection—between the Navy base days of my youth on Curaçao, when my dad explained how naval ships use seawater for onboard air-conditioning, and this elegant, civilian-scale deployment of naval-inspired technology. That simplicity—using what’s already proven in other sectors—is hugely exciting.

In my previous work as an Ecofys consultant, I assessed similar hotel projects in Gibraltar and Turkey. Offshore deep-water piping made those cases financially prohibitive. Here, OWAC’s use of surface water sidesteps that barrier, making the business case not just plausible but compelling.

I’m very much inspired by the owners’ willingness to pioneer—taking a calculated risk to integrate sustainable, high-efficiency cooling from day one. This visit was an invitation both to reconnect with my roots and to witness how island heritage, naval sustainability, and forward-thinking engineering can converge beautifully. I’m excited to see OWAC in full operation at The Pyrmont—and ready to help bring more “energy from water” to life.