The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa on the island of St. Maarten has completed a solar installation that allows the resort to produce six to eight hours of its own power during peak times.
The resort is the first Westin hotel or resort in the world, and the only major resort in the Caribbean, to complete and utilize solar panels to replace some of its energy consumption.
The property’s owner, Columbia Sussex Corporation, working with OneWorld Sustainable, has completed the installation of 2,602 Lightway solar panels for a total system capacity of 755 kilowatts. The completed solar system will produce approximately 1,223,000 kilowatt-hours per year-enough electricity to power 111 average-size American homes.
The system will avoid 1.9 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, or the equivalent of CO2 emissions from energy used by 43 homes annually, or 707 acres of forest preserved from deforestation by carbon sequestering.
Dan Szydlowski, regional director for Westin, says, “With sunshine nearly guaranteed year round, we saw only positive attributes to making this capital and environmental sustainability investment.”
