The Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo sits at the mouth of the Ozama River. It is one of the Caribbean’s oldest cities, and with 3.3 million inhabitants, it’s also the most populous. Over the past decade alone it has added around 700,000 inhabitants. Santo Domingo’s growth driven by households, industry, and tourism pushed electricity demand higher, while suitable land for new power plants remained scarce due to flooding risks and lengthy permitting.
To overcome these constraints, Seaboard Corporation partnered with Siemens Energy to expand its floating generation fleet, building on the success of Estrella del Mar II. The solution: a prefabricated floating power plant built in cooperation with a partnering shipyard in Singapore, equipped with modular systems manufactured in Europe, and already partly commissioned offshore before arrival.
However, in contrast to ordinary floating power plants that are based on reciprocating engines and fueled with diesel or sometimes even heavy fuel oil, Siemens Energy’s SeaFloat concept is based on high-efficient gas turbine technology in combined cycle.
By May 2022, Estrella del Mar III was connected to the Dominican grid - delivering power faster than a comparable onshore plant and avoiding years of land development delays. In 2028, it will be accompanied by the currently built Estrella del Mar IV.
