VIETNAM: A thirty-hectare beachfront resort in Vietnam is installing solar panels to provide up to 30 per cent of its energy needs.
Alma Resort Cam Ranh, to the south of Nha Trang, is set to complete what it believes is one of Vietnam’s most comprehensive hotel solar power projects by the end of this year.
Alma is installing 4,476 solar panels totalling 23,290 square metres on the roofs of its villas and other buildings across the resort.
With a capacity of 2,462 kWh peak – the rate at which it generates energy at its peak performance on a sunny day – the solar power system will fuel between a quarter to almost 30 per cent of Alma’s energy needs.
To put that amount in perspective a UK household uses approximately 2,700 kWh per year.
It’s estimated the system will save Alma up to USD $7.2 million (VND 178 billion) in electricity bills over the next 25 years and will also reduce Alma’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 65,000 tonnes over the same period.
Alma’s managing director Herbert Laubichler-Pichler said the resort was setting a strong example on the solar power front for the rest of Vietnam’s luxury hotel industry.
“Cam Ranh is renowned as having Vietnam’s best weather, averaging more than 300 sunny days annually… The abundant sunshine here lends itself to such a profound and sustainable alternative to electricity that we are well and truly on the way to finishing soon.”
Vietnam has emerged as a big player in Southeast Asia’s solar power market, with the largest installed solar capacity in the region due to favourable government policies, such as attractive feed-in-tariffs, and substantial private investment.
The resort has also created an onsite and chemical-free Herb Garden, Nursery Garden and Chicken Farm, providing fresh produce and eggs served at Alma’s restaurants.
In addition the resort has a 325sqm water treatment plant which deploys a reverse osmosis system to provide 70,000 litres of drinkable water and ice for all the resort’s kitchens per week.
The refuse room processes about 250 kilograms of rubbish a day, including compostable waste and recyclables, reselling an average of, for example, 110 litres of cooking oil weekly to non-food businesses so that it is recycled.
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