Wednesday 26 November 2008

Hotel spends millions to tap solar energy

NT Business Review
November, 2008 Page: 4

THE largest building-mounted solar panel system in Australia is being installed at an Alice Springs hotel. More than 1300 photovoltaic cells, worth $3 million, will reduce the Crowne Plaza Hotel's annual carbon dioxide emission load by 420 tonnes. The panels are being installed as part of the Alice Solar City commercial program, which encourages changes in commercial electricity consumption habits.

Alice Solar City general manger Brian Elmer said: For one business to contribute such a substantial reduction to Alice Springs' carbon footprint is an impressive achievement. And this is just the first of four projects, with the big one being a solar farm out at Ilparpa, as well as a major solar energy installation at the airport and solar air-conditioning at Araluen Arts Centre.

It is looking very positive for the future of solar energy in Alice Springs." Crowne Plaza general manager Adam Glass said: This is something the hotel owner is very passionate about. He has, for a long time, wanted to make the hotel more and more environmentally-friendly and conscious of energy consumption. "We've already put in place several initiatives, such as water-restricting shower heads and glass recycling.

The great thing about this is our roof line - it is almost all sloping and facing north, maximising our sunlight coverage Its almost perfect how the panels go on," Mr Glass said the hotel was also planning to create an in-house channel with regular updates on the project, information about solar technology and references to Alice Solar City and the new Centre at the Desert Knowledge Precinct. We also are just making final decisions about our interactive information display, which will be in the front lobby," she said.

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