PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten—The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa, St. Maarten has completed a solar installation earlier this year that allows the resort to produce six to eight hours of its own power during peak times.
The resort has harnessed the power of the Caribbean sun for more than a year and reached an environmental milestone by generating one Gigawatt of solar power, or one billion watt-hours. The resort also just installed a completely oil-free Smardt Chiller to further conserve energy; the Chiller is used in the air conditioning and refrigeration systems throughout the resort.
One GigaWatt of power is enough to provide annual power to 92 American households, and conserves more than 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which equals the emissions from more than 77 thousand gallons of gasoline consumed. It has also spared emissions equivalent to more than 1,600 barrels of oil consumed and enough carbon sequestering of more than 17,000 seedlings grown for 10 years.
The resort began taking advantage of the island’s abundance of sunshine in 2007 with the installation of solar panels to heat the water used in the property’s guest rooms. Phase I of the current resort-wide solar project was completed in June 2013, with the final phase completed in February 2014.
Dan Szydlowski, regional director, said , “The capital investment not only makes an impact on environmental sustainability, but our resort has become even more attractive to groups seeking an energy efficient location. With the addition of the Smardt Chiller, we save a minimum of 30-35 percent in energy costs.”
