SHOWCASES:     US Embassy, Nigeria Africa     |     DeBary Florida, USA    |     St. Lucia, Caribbean

Sandals Grande St. Lucian Hotel
Castries, St. Lucia

Island nations like St. Lucia are caught in the middle of the energy crunch.  The regions’ key dependence on diesel and propane has resulted in not only considerable price increases but is also affecting the ability of consumers and government to maintain economic balance.  Although this is a worldwide effect, the Caribbean is already starting at a higher carbon baseline, with energy prices being amongst the highest in the world.  (In St. Lucia, the 2006 regional average electrical costs tallied $0.26 in $US/kWh, compared to $0.08 in the US.)

Sandals Grande St. Lucian Hotel began investigation of a renewable energy replacement for the resort’s high usage, propane-based hot water heating systems.  A study by Energy Dynamics Limited of typical energy use in hotels in the Caribbean found that hot water heating is second only to air conditioning in accounting for hotel energy demands.  Specifically, the study showed that the hospitality industry can save up to 15% in a hotel’s energy costs, by switching to solar thermal technology.

 

*Source:  Energy Dynamics Limited, 11th Annual Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference, May 8-10, 2007 Curacao.

In a pilot program, with TCT Partner, Environmental Resource Management, Sandals Grande St. Lucian Hotel purchased and installed 12 units of TCT Solar’s ProgressivTube®  PT50s to handle the hot water loads of 48 rooms of the 480 room resort.  Foremost, Sandals was interested in the energy saving potential when utilizing a solar water heater, particularly compared to the propane gas currently in use at $4.00/gallon.  

Initial projections indicated that Sandals was expected to reduce their propane gas consumption by 70-80% through the use of solar water heaters.  However, the savings measured were actually much better. 


Small Footprint, No Carbon Footprint

TCT Solar’s Integral Collector Storage (ICS) simple design particularly appealed to Sandals as it requires zero to very low maintenance and operating costs, a key feature to an island community with little infrastructure to support problematic fixes.  Secondly, since the TCT system has storage integrated into the collector itself, the unit provides a relatively small real estate footprint – an important asset feature considering the premium cost of resort land values.

TCT Solar also provided Sandals with Metrima BTU meters to quantify the actual energy savings over the propane gas consumption. These meters will allow Sandals to register their GHG offsets through tradable renewable credits (TRCs) in the near future. Renewable energy and energy efficient activities in the Caribbean can generate substantial revenue due to the comparatively high carbon baseline for electricity generation across most of the region. This prepares the region well for the large and rapidly growing market for international trade in GHG reduction, helping to boost renewable energy activities in this part of the world.

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