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Hugo Sealy
St. George’s, Grenda, March 25th, 2019: Hugo Sealy, assistant refirgeration and air-conditioning technician in the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Climate Reselience, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is the latest beneficiary to receive overseas training in natural refrigerants for the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector. Mr. Sealy who has also received hydrocarbon technology training in Grenada is currently in Japan attending a four (4) weeks training programme in natural refrigerants, with particular focus on their application in the fisheries sector.
In Grenada there are three (3) fisheries plants (two government owned and one privately owned) that operate with the natural refrigerant, ammonia. However, there is very limited technical capacity on the island to adequately, install, maintain and operate these systems. Ammonia refrigeration systems require higher levels of safety measures, mainly due to the toxicity of the refrigerant. The training will focus heavily on energy efficiency, water conservation, ozone and climate friendly natural refrigerants as well as renewable energy – solar photo voltaic. The program includes theoretical and hands-on practical sessions as well as study tours to major fisheries establishments that use ammonia and carbon dioxide.
The training is organised by Marino-Forum21, a Japanese based company engaged in technical development related tot he fisheries sector. This training will be conducted from March 24th – April 19th, 2019. Funding to facilitate Mr. Sealy’s participation is provided by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
St. George’s, Grenada, Monday March 25th, 2019: Two members of the Grenada Refrigeration, Air-conditioning and Ventilating Association (GRAVA) left the island on Sunday March 24th for San Jose, Costa Rica, to participate in a ‘Technology Road Show on Natural Refrigerants” and to attend the “Network Meeting of the Green Cooling Initiative (GCI), from March 25th – 28th, 2019.
This event is part of a series of capacity building measures on natural refrigerants, aimed at decision makers and technicians in the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) sector, in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
The week in Costa Rica is organized by the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and is supported within the framework of the Green Climate Initiative II project that is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Additional funding is provided through the Sustainable Phase-out of Ozone Depleting Substances (SPODS) project, co-financed by the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Co-operation and Development. Grenada is the only English-speaking Caribbean country participating in the SPODS project.
The main objective of the study tour/roadshow is to visit different sites where technology using natural refrigerants are used as climate and ozone friendly alternatives and with improvements in energy efficiencies. Among the sites to be visited are: establishments with cooling systems that use ammonia and CO2, commercial and industrial refrigeration sites that use R-290 refrigerants and the first HFC–free company in Costa Rica that uses R-290 refrigerants in chillers and industrial refrigeration systems. The participants will also have the opportunity to visit hotels using R-290 AC systems and participate in discussions and training sessions on natural refrigerants.
During the Network Meeting of the Green Cooling initiative, the technicians will interact and discuss with decision makers on policies, technology development, standards and energy efficiency and on the lessons learnt during the cooling technology roadshow.
The National Ozone Unit – the local executing agency for projects aimed at protecting the ozone payer has adopted as a policy; to leap-frog the transitional high global warming potential (GWP), HFC gases and to move directly towards natural refrigerants with zero ozone depleting potential (ODP) and negligible GWP (<3). Already there has been very positive response from stakeholders to the R-290 AC demonstration project under the “Cool Contributions fighting Climate Change (C4)” project. RAC equipment importers have started introducing these units to the local market.
Left: Nicholas Joseph, (Right) John Campbell
The two technicians currently in Costa Rica are Mr. Nicholas Joseph, assistant General Secretary of GRAVA and Mr. John Campbell, the Public Relations Officer (PRO). On their return, the technicians would share the knowledge and experience gained from the study tour with other technicians and more importantly provide technically and economically feasible recommendations to the NOU on what aspects of natural refrigerant technology can be applied in Grenada.
National Ozone Unit of Grenada 