State Minister for the Environment, Phenton Neymour, placed a $50 million estimate on the electricity cost savings hotels in The Bahamas missed out on in 2009, based on statistics coming out of a well-publicized sustainable energy report.
Participating in the opening panel discussion of the Energy Efficiency Forum and Exhibition, held at the Wyndham Nassau Resort over the weekend, Neymour honed in on the potential energy savings in the hotel sector. Drawing from the "Promoting Sustainable Energy in The Bahamas" report, coming out of an energy audit at 16 hotels in The Bahamas, Neymour fixed a dollar value to the estimated 226 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per annum in identified potential electricity savings for the hotel sector.
"If we were just to take a conservative estimate using a Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) rate of 25 cents per kilowatt hour - now I know when most of you get home you'll see that rate actually is above 37 cents, but I used 25 cents -- that figure would represent that we have the potential to save $50 million annually," Neymour said.
Greater energy efficiency in the tourism sector could result in a more competitively priced offer to stopover guests. Energy costs add heavily to daily costs visitors to The Bahamas must bear - above those of large competitive destinations, according to a recent statement attributed to the Minister of Tourism by local media.
But the 226 million kWh potential savings represents 10 percent of the total power demand of The Bahamas in 2009, according to the sustainable energy report produced by the German energy consulting firm Fichtner. Greater efficiency in the hotel sector could not only mean a more competitive and profitable tourism sector, but significantly reduced national power demand.
Loreto Duffy-Mayers, project manager for the Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Program (CHENACT), said according to research findings, hotels throughout the Caribbean are demonstrating similar inefficiencies. CHENACT, managed by the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), recently completed 32 detailed audits of Barbados hotels, 13 walkthroughs and 17 audits of properties in the Eastern Caribbean states, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
"The audit results were quite shocking to us in some ways ... we have established that the hotel industry is extremely inefficient. Maintenance is a massive problem, and these are some of the areas that have to be overcome," Duffy-Mayers told conference participants.
"We've spent all our time on marketing and no time on the unsexy topics like back-of-house issues."
In the CHENACT study, which looked at hotels of less than 400 rooms, the majority of recommendations would pay for themselves within three years, with changes in the type of lighting used, for example, to pay for themselves in less than two months - six months if more expensive light-emitting diode (LED) technology is utilized. Still, Duffy-Mayers said CHENACT was recommending that hotels go directly to LEDs, saying that a Barbados manufacturer had been identified as a potential supplier.
She warned hoteliers about the temptation to buy cheap energy equipment and fixtures that may be "dumped" into developing nations. In the local hotel sector, small hotels are the least energy efficient followed by large hotels, according the of Fichtner report. Energy consumption per rented room averaged 200 kWh for small hotels, 74k kWh for medium properties, and 140 kWh for large properties. Average specific energy cost per room was $48 for small hotels, $20 for medium hotels, and $42 for large hotels.
The total energy savings for the three classes of hotels was between 49 and 63 percent, with the total savings for the sector estimated at 53 percent. The Fichtner report concluded there were measures that could be implemented to reduce energy consumption varying from requiring no investment to significant investment with longer-terms to break even on the investment. Passive measures cited included better usage of natural shading and ventilation, particularly for new hotel construction.
Initiatives requiring no investments include awareness campaigns for staff and guests, increasing the standard set point of air conditioning units in guest rooms, switching off appliances not in use, regular maintenance of technical appliances, a regular check of temperature cooling devices and reduction of pool pump circulation where possible.
Low-cost measures that would pay for themselves within a year include the installation of switches to allow appliances to be switched off easily during the off season, replacement of incandescent light bulbs with a daily usage of more than six hours with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and shading of air conditioning chillers.
More costly investments the Fichtner report recommended include the installation of intelligent systems and monitoring, like the usage of motion detectors to switch off air conditioning when guests leave the room, or if a window is open. It also recommended the change of energy sources for example using solar hot water heaters for laundry, and LPG or diesel for hot water generation instead of electrical heating. Relative to electricity costs, diesel was 75 percent less expensive and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) 60 percent less, based on 2009 prices. Seawater cooling for central air conditioning chillers was also recommended.
The three-day conference that commenced Friday, November 4th was sponsored by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC), the Bahamas Hotel Association, and the Bahamas Home & Builders Show in cooperation with the Bahamas Ministry of the Environment, the United States Embassy, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Bahamas Contractor's Association.
Presenters for the energy conference included representatives of the sponsors and Kerzner International, Bahamas Electricity Corporation, NALCO Company, Ecotechnologies, Bloom Energy, Schooner Bay, Motor Dynamics, Wiedenbach-Brown Co., Inc. Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation, Westfield Construction, Graphite Engineering, and Eaton Energy Solutions Group.
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