A recent article in GreenerBuildings.com explores the growing potential for hotels and resorts to save by installing solar thermal solutions. The Proximity Hotel, in Greensboro NC, which I've written about more than once, is heavily featured. Its 100-panel installation covers 4,000 square feet on the LEED Platinum building delivering about 5,000 gallons of hot water each day. This is saving the hotel about $16,000 per year , according to Dennis Quaintance, of Quaintance-Weaver, the company that owns the property.
The company expects to recover its investment in the system within five years. When you total up energy savings, renewable energy credits of $20,000 a year, a 30 percent federal tax credit, 35 percent state tax credit, and accelerated depreciation it's a rapid return on investment. The solar hot water heating system is backed up by a natural gas system, but has been meeting 60 percent of the hotel’s domestic hot water needs.
An even larger system has been installed on the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa. This one goes to 166-panels heating 100,000 gallons of water each day. The installers estimate the hotel's owners should get a return on their $550,000 investment in less than three years. In this case, Arizona Public Service is offsetting 60% of the cost through its purchase of RECs. The hotel owners are now planning a possible additional 212 panels, which would make it the largest solar thermal installation on any hotel in the United States. The heated water from phase two will be used for the resort’s restaurants, laundry and pool. Because so much water is used for these, payback time on phase two will be just six months
Hotels are clearly catching on to the sizeable savings they can gain from solar hot water implentations. And it seems to work in almost every part of the country.
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