Mubasher: The senior vice president, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa, and India of Swiss-Belhotel International, Laurent A. Voivenel, delivered an outstanding presentation on ‘Future of Solar Power in Hotels’ at the Dubai-held event, The Big5 Solar conference in Dubai.

Laurent said that raising awareness about solar power can significantly benefit the hotel industry and ensure a better future, said a press release on Wednesday.

He reiterated that a “greater collaboration” among various stakeholders of the building design and construction process is required in order to take advantage of the evolving solar technology.

The growing adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems across the Middle East will soon lead to a more diversified national energy supply portfolio.

Building on this, several countries across the region “have set steep capacity installation targets over the next 10 to 15 years. Given its increasing affordability, the applications and use of solar energy have broadened and can also be implemented in hotels.”

Meanwhile, Laurent said, “Solar requires investment but it has tremendous financial and ecological benefits too. The development of innovative design concepts is essential for energy efficiency in hotel buildings for both new and existing stock.”

“Hotel designers need to rebalance the relationship between architecture and nature with the goal of increasing the quality of life. We know wind and solar power will dominate the power mix by 2050. We expect to see greater adoption of solar in hotels as well,” he added.

Given an urban influx of 2 billion people is expected by 2050, creating cities that are low-carbon, resilient, and affordable is crucial.

It is worth noting that the UAE is among the world’s top clean energy investors, with expected investments up to AED 600 billion by 2050 and with a target to have 75% of the total power production from it, recent reports showed.