Sun to power 10% of Corinthia Marina hotel

The Corinthia Group has embarked on a 'sustainability drive', which will see photovoltaic installations erected across all the roofs of Corinthia properties in Malta

The Corinthia Group has embarked on a “sustainability drive”, which will see photovoltaic installations erected across all the roofs of Corinthia properties in Malta.

This project will see the installation of solar panels with a total power of 1.6 megawatt-power erected across all the roofs of Corinthia properties in Malta.

The group has already presented a planning application cover the massive 3,500sq.m roof of the low-rise Marina Hotel in St George’s Bay with solar panels, which was to be demolished in previous plans presented in 2019 to accommodate at least two large towers.

“This project is intended to reduce the carbon footprint of the Group without creating visual pollution, as the panels will always be laid below parapet wall heights,” a group spokesperson told MaltaToday.

At the Marina Hotel, the 161kWp system is expected to generate 250,000 kiloWatt-hours every year. This represents just above 10% of the electrical consumption of the hotel.

The group did not reply when asked how the planned solar panels on the marina hotel would be impacted by adjacent high-rise developments like the now approved DB project, especially in terms of shadowing.

The Corinthia hotels group had objected to the DB group’s high-rise project and presented studies of how the downsized City Centre project would cast a long shadow on its hotels’ landscaped gardens and pool areas.

Neither did the group answer when asked how the proposed solar panels tally with previous plans issued in 2019 which foresaw the demolition and replacement of the marina hotel with a number of towers replacing the Marina and Radisson Hotels.

Back in 2019, Corinthia was seeking the approval of 100,000sq.m of office and residential space on its grounds through changes in its agreement with government, which currently limits development to tourism accommodation. The agreement has not been signed yet.