Idea 421 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Energy audits and efficiency retrofits for the hotels, paid from the savings
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Offer the general manager of one mid-sized hotel a free walk-through in return for 12 months of electricity and fuel bills. List the three largest savings you find, such as lighting, air conditioning and water heating, and propose to install them for a share of what the bills fall by. The proof is a manager who signs a savings-share agreement.
- Who pays first
- A hotel owner for whom energy is one of the largest running costs, who says yes because the fee is paid only from money actually saved.
- What leaves today
- Energy wasted in hotels is imported fuel paid for twice, once in the bill and once in foreign exchange; efficiency keeps that money on the island.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
Idea 421 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.