Jetwing Hotels in partnership with Germany’s Green Cooling Initiative
View(s):Jetwing Hotels, one of Sri Lanka’s largest hospitality brands, recently signed a cooperation agreement with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, to demonstrate climate-friendly and energy-efficient cooling solutions in the country’s hotel industry. Refrigeration and air conditioning often makes more than 50 per cent of hotel’s electricity consumption, and given the increasing electricity tariffs this results in significant costs. The electricity used for cooling is largely generated from fossil fuel combustion, therefore impacting the climate. Hotels are well advised to explore efficient and climate-friendly technology alternatives for comfort cooling and refrigeration, the hotel group said in a media release.
Jetwing Hotels successfully applied for support at the GIZ Green Cooling Initiative call for innovative ideas. The Green Cooling Initiative is a global project funded by the International Climate Initiative by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and it is implemented by GIZ PROKLIMA – a programme that advices actors in developing countries on climate-friendly and energy-efficient cooling technologies. Planned activities include the set-up of an absorption chiller for air conditioning at Jetwing Blue, a measure implemented for the very first time in Sri Lanka at Jetwing Lagoon. The steam is produced in a boiler which will be fired with cinnamon wood, a byproduct in the country’s cinnamon industry which can be used as a sustainable crop, the release said.