The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa, St. Maarten completed a landmark solar installation earlier this year, which allows the resort to produce six to eight hours of its own power during peak times.
The resort has harnessed the power of the sun for more than a year and reached an environmental milestone by generating one gigawatt hour of solar power, or one billion watt-hours. The resort also recently 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 hour 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 consumed gasoline. 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.
In 2007, the island installed solar panels to heat the water used in the property’s guestrooms. Phase I of the current resort-wide solar project was completed in June 2013, with the final phase completed in February 2014.
