World’s first solar power resort opens in the Maldives next month
View(s):The world’s first luxury resort using solely solar power is to open in the Maldives next month.
The Club Med-managed Finolhu Villas with 52 luxury bungalows with a solar power system installed at a cost of around US$8 million is due to open in mid-January 2015 at Gasfinolhu island, 40 minutes away from the capital, Male, according to media reports from Male.
The resort has many solar panels which also cover the walkway from the jetty to the reception and on roofs of utility buildings. The reports said that Gasfinolhu’s 6,500 square metres of solar panel are capable of producing 1100 Kilowatts at power peak. The island at full occupancy only requires 600 Kilowatts at peak load, it said.
The resort has been developed by Male-based Global Pvt. Ltd and will be Club Med’s second facility in the Maldives. Club Med Kani with 240 rooms is five minutes away from the new resort.
The resort’s power system is automated and computer programmed, and can switch from solar to diesel power, when necessary particularly when there is continuous rain and no sunlight to generate solar power. Excess solar power is stored in batteries during the day which is then used to power the resort at night.
Tourism-dependent the Maldives has over 100 resorts which consume 49 per cent of the country’s annual diesel imports. The authorities have been looking at alternate energy options and have been encouraging resorts to do the same.