How SA hotels are going green, with solar power, water restrictors, and even a vertical farm
Hotels in South Africa equipped with rooftop solar panels, water-efficient fittings, energy-saving minibars, and even a vertical farm already form part of Radisson's goal of complete decarbonisation by 2050.
The Radisson Hotel Group, with more than 1,700 hotels worldwide, is on a mission to be net zero or carbon neutral by 2050. In South Africa, where it has 14 properties, the company has already begun to introduce sustainable practices involving energy, water, construction, and food.
Radisson's move to renewable energy comes amid South Africa's worsening power crisis, typified by protracted bouts of load shedding as a result of the country's ageing and poorly maintained coal-powered fleet. In addition to offsetting carbon emissions and reducing demand on the national grid, the hotel group's rooftop solar panel projects also offer some protection against blackouts.
Rooftop solar at the Park Inn by Radisson in Cape Town's Foreshore was its first large-scale commercial hybrid photovoltaic and thermal (PVT) project. A total of 30 hybrid solar panels generate both thermal energy, which heats the hotel's water up to 70°C, and photovoltaic electricity.
