Power hotels with an off-site solar plant to cut emissions

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

The company operates hotels and resorts in the services sector, with more than 1,000 employees.

Resort hotels are energy-intensive buildings. Air conditioning, kitchens, laundries, pools and sports facilities run continuously through a season that coincides with the hottest months, and the electricity behind them is drawn from the national grid. The sector is usually described as a consumer of energy and a contributor to the climate pressure that also threatens its own destinations, through extreme weather, water scarcity and shifting demand.

The company's response was to move the group from the consumer side of that equation to the generator side, by building its own generation capacity away from the hotels and matching it to demand through the grid rather than attempting to fit enough capacity onto hotel roofs.

The wider sustainability system around the investment was formalised in the same period. A sustainability gap analysis carried out in 2025 set 2024 as the base year and identified the definition of reduction targets as an action; the 2025 report was prepared in accordance with GRI standards and aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, performance is assessed with an open-source, science-based sustainability assessment tool, and management systems follow ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001.

The initiative is positioned against Türkiye's 2053 net zero objective and the ambition to operate the facilities as zero-carbon accommodation centres.

Location of the initiative: Elmalı, Antalya Province, Türkiye

The core asset is a solar power plant with 60 MW of installed capacity, spread over 85 hectares at Elmalı in Antalya province, which started generating in August 2023 and produces approximately 100 GWh of electricity a year.

The plant is not adjacent to the hotels it serves. Generation is fed into the national grid and offset against the consumption of the group's facilities, so the grid functions as an energy store rather than as a supplier. That arrangement removes the geographical constraint on siting: generation can be placed wherever solar irradiation is favourable, rather than where the buildings happen to stand, and the capacity is not limited by available roof area.

Two digital layers make the match work in practice. Digital monitoring systems track generation and consumption so that the netting position is known continuously, and smart building automation manages loads inside the facilities. The stated objective of the automation is to manage energy without loss and without any reduction in guest comfort, which is the condition any hotel energy measure has to satisfy.

An enterprise resource planning system underpins the reporting, giving the sustainability data the same traceability as financial data.

The commercial design closes the loop. Electricity beyond the group's own requirement is sold to the market, which generates the return on the investment, and carbon credit trading is identified as a future option rather than a current revenue stream.

The generation investment sits inside a broader programme covering water, waste, procurement and people, which is where the remaining performance results come from.

Figure 1: How generation at the Elmalı solar plant is matched to consumption at the group's hotels and sports facilities through the national grid: 60 MW across 85 hectares, operational since August 2023, generating around 100 GWh a year and avoiding approximately 63,450 tonnes of CO2.

Figure 2: On-site fuel consumption in 2024 and 2025: diesel down from 224,874 to 213,906 litres, petrol from 57,540 to 50,485 litres and LPG from 2,226 to 1,362 litres.

Sustainability impact

Climate

The initiative targets Scope 2 emissions, those associated with purchased electricity, by matching the group's entire electricity requirement with its own renewable generation through the grid. The company reports that 100 per cent of its electricity need is met from renewable sources and that approximately 63,450 tonnes of CO2 emissions are avoided each year, on the basis of approximately 100 GWh of annual generation.

Compared with 2024, natural gas consumption increased by 50 per cent, while coal consumption decreased by 71.2 per cent in 2025.

The base year is 2024, established through the sustainability gap analysis carried out in 2025, which also identified the definition of reduction targets as an outstanding action.

Forward commitments are targets rather than results: a 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2028 and fully carbon-neutral operation by 2050, positioned as a contribution to Türkiye's 2053 net zero objective. The target set covering 2026-2030 is organised under seven headings: 1. energy, 2. water management, 3. circularity, 4. prevention of damage to natural habitats, 5. emissions tracking, 6. supply management, 7. human resources.

Avoided emissions were calculated by multiplying the amount of electricity generated by the solar power plant by the emission factor applicable to the relevant reference electricity generation/consumption scenario. This calculation was based on the emissions that would be expected to occur if the electricity generated from renewable sources were instead supplied from the grid or another reference electricity source, and it was evaluated separately from the company's Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emission inventory.

Nature

Water is the second material issue for a resort group in a Mediterranean climate. Total water savings of 46 per cent were achieved between 2020 and 2022 and replacing conventional turf with Zoysia grass reduced irrigation by 35 per cent, which addresses the largest discretionary water use on a resort site.

Waste volumes fell over the reporting period. Total non-hazardous waste dropped from 2,999 tonnes in 2024 to approximately 1,793 tonnes in 2025, a reduction of about 40 per cent, and 35,539 plastic bottles were prevented from being used at the group's sports arena. Organic waste is composted and donated to animal shelters rather than sent for disposal.

Habitat protection on the sites themselves includes the preservation of a 765-year-old terebinth tree, and prevention of damage to natural habitats is one of the seven target headings for the coming period.

The generation asset carries its own land requirement: 85 hectares are committed to the solar plant, which is a land use decision rather than a land use saving.

Social

Equal opportunity is managed as a measured objective. Women make up 31.36 per cent of employees, and the company reports holding the first Equal Woman at Work certificate awarded in its sector.

Training is delivered through the group's own academy, with 32,530 hours of sustainability training provided to employees, and a sustainability committee spanning all departments works with sustainability ambassadors to translate targets into daily operations.

Employee retention improved alongside these measures: the turnover rate fell from 6.31 per cent in 2024 to 4.20 per cent in 2025.

Local economic value is created through procurement. Local supply volumes exceeded TRY 1 billion as of 2024, purchasing preference supports women entrepreneurs, and suppliers are engaged through sustainable purchasing priorities and a code of conduct.

A materiality analysis conducted in 2025 established that reducing the carbon footprint and using local food were the themes guests and employees prioritised, and those themes now shape corporate planning. Feedback is collected through surveys, an open-door policy, performance interviews and digital channels.

Business impact

Benefits

The investment converts an operating cost into an asset. Covering the group's entire electricity requirement from its own generation insulates the business from electricity price volatility, which for an energy-intensive hospitality operation is one of the largest uncontrolled cost lines.

Electricity generated beyond the group's own consumption is sold to the market, and that revenue is what creates the return on the investment rather than the avoided purchase alone.

Fossil fuel use moved in different directions against 2024: natural gas consumption increased, while coal fell by 71.2 per cent, diesel by 4.9 per cent, petrol by 12.25 per cent and LPG by 39 per cent. Waste volumes fell by approximately 40 per cent. Each of these has a direct effect on cost.

Commercially, the position responds to demand in European source markets for low-carbon destinations, and it protects tourism revenue against climate risk by making the operation independent of grid carbon intensity. Carbon credit trading is identified as a future opportunity rather than a current income line.

Internally, lower employee turnover, from 6.31 per cent to 4.20 per cent, reduces recruitment and training cost in a sector where seasonal staffing is a persistent difficulty.

Costs

The principal cost is the capital investment in 60 MW of solar capacity across 85 hectares, together with land, grid connection and the arrangements that allow generation to be offset against consumption at the facilities.

The digital layer carries its own cost: monitoring systems, building management automation and the enterprise resource planning platform that supports transparent reporting, plus the certification and audit cost of maintaining ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001 systems.

The model depends on the regulatory arrangement that permits netting through the national grid. If the terms on which generation is offset against consumption change, the economics of the investment change with them, and this is a dependency rather than a manageable risk. Regulatory compliance processes and extreme weather events are both tracked as strategic risks.

Costs are contained by siting generation where irradiation is strongest rather than where the buildings are, by selling surplus output, and by using the same data infrastructure for operational, financial and sustainability reporting.

The solar power plant entailed an investment cost of USD 50 million. It is projected to generate annual revenue of USD 4.25 million from the sale of surplus electricity and to have a payback period of eight years.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

Supplier engagement extends the effect beyond the group. Sustainable purchasing priorities and a supplier code of conduct push the transition into the supply chain, and local procurement above TRY 1 billion concentrates that effect in the regional economy, including among women entrepreneurs.

Guest behaviour is a second channel. Responding to demand for low-carbon destinations, particularly in European markets, encourages a shift in booking behaviour towards sustainable accommodation that no single property could achieve alone.

The open-source, science-based assessment tool at the centre of the approach is designed so that businesses of any size and sector can measure their own performance, which makes the measurement method itself transferable rather than proprietary.

Potential side-effects

Off-site generation matched through the grid is not the same as physically supplying a building with renewable electricity. The claim depends on the netting arrangement being recognised, and the hotels continue to draw grid electricity with the grid's own carbon intensity at the moment of use.

The plant occupies 85 hectares of land, and the trade-off between land use and generation capacity has to be managed at the site level, particularly where habitat protection is also a stated objective.

Reduction targets were still being defined at the time of reporting: the gap analysis identified target setting as an action, so the 2028 and 2050 commitments sit ahead of a completed inventory rather than behind one.

Water and waste results are reported over different periods from the energy results, which makes a single consolidated performance picture harder to construct and should be resolved as the reporting matures.

Typical business profile

The model suits hospitality groups and other multi-site service operators with high, continuous electricity demand concentrated in buildings that cannot host enough generation capacity on their own roofs.

It requires a regulatory environment that permits generation at one location to be offset against consumption at another through the national grid, access to land in a high-irradiation area, and a balance sheet able to carry a generation asset alongside the core business.

Delivery engages senior governance, a sustainability coordination function responsible for ESG indicators and reporting, facilities and energy management, procurement, human resources, and information systems for the enterprise resource planning and building management platforms.

Approach

1. Size generation against total group consumption: Establish the annual electricity requirement of all facilities first, then size the plant to cover it with a surplus, rather than fitting capacity to the roof area available.

2. Site the plant where irradiation is strongest: Select a location on generation yield rather than proximity to the buildings, since the grid carries the output and the geographical constraint disappears.

3. Secure the netting arrangement before committing capital: Confirm the regulatory basis on which generation at one site is offset against consumption at others, because that arrangement, not the panels, determines the economics.

4. Instrument both ends of the balance: Install digital monitoring on generation and on facility consumption so that the netting position, and therefore the surplus available for sale, is known continuously.

5. Automate load management inside the buildings: Deploy building management systems to control heating, cooling and plant loads with guest comfort as a fixed constraint, so that demand reduction does not become a service reduction.

6. Attack on-site fuel use in parallel: Reduce natural gas and coal consumption for heating and hot water at the same time, because electricity substitution alone leaves the direct emissions untouched.

7. Set a base year and run a gap analysis: Establish a base year, in this case 2024, assess performance with a science-based assessment tool, and identify explicitly which targets still need to be defined instead of publishing aspirations as commitments.

8. Route the surplus and the data through existing systems: Sell excess generation to the market to create the return, and carry sustainability data through the enterprise resource planning system so that reporting is auditable alongside financial data.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: The sustainability strategy is led at vice-chair level of the board, with a senior board setting long-term strategy, risk management and resource allocation. A sustainability coordination function is responsible for tracking and reporting ESG performance indicators, a sustainability committee spanning every department integrates targets into daily operations through sustainability ambassadors, and gender equality and social committees support the same structure.

• Company functions: Energy and facilities management operate the netting position and the building automation, procurement runs the local and sustainable purchasing policy and the supplier code of conduct, human resources delivers training through the group academy and manages the equal opportunity programme, and information systems maintain the enterprise resource planning platform on which transparent reporting depends.

• Main providers: Engineering, procurement and construction contractors delivered the solar plant, and technology suppliers provide the monitoring, building management and enterprise resource planning platforms. Suppliers to the hotels are engaged through sustainable purchasing priorities and a code of conduct that extends the requirements into the supply chain.

• Other: Local administrations are involved in the siting and operation of the generation asset. Local communities and producers participate through the procurement programme, including women entrepreneurs supported by purchasing preference. Non-governmental organisations and animal shelters receive composted organic waste. Guests and employees were surveyed in the 2025 materiality analysis, which established carbon footprint reduction and local food sourcing as the priority themes now reflected in corporate planning.

Key parameters to consider

The plant has 60 MW of installed capacity across 85 hectares and has been generating since August 2023, producing approximately 100 GWh a year.

The model rests on a netting arrangement through the national grid, so the regulatory framework is a defining parameter rather than a detail. Where such an arrangement is unavailable, the same capacity would have to be sited with a direct connection or contracted differently.

The base year is 2024 and the reporting framework is GRI, with performance assessed through an open-source science-based tool and management systems certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001.

Water, waste and energy results are reported over different periods, and the 2026-2030 target set was still being defined at the time of reporting.

Land availability is the practical constraint on replication: 85 hectares for 60 MW is the ratio that a replicating operator has to be able to secure.

Implementation and operations tips

Decouple generation from the buildings. The constraint on renewable energy in hospitality is roof area, and netting through the grid removes it entirely, which is the single decision that makes full coverage possible.

Verify the regulatory arrangement before the engineering. The value of the investment depends on how generation is offset against consumption, so that arrangement should be confirmed before capital is committed.

Do not let electricity substitution hide direct fuel use. The reductions in coal of 71.2 per cent, diesel of 4.9 per cent, petrol of 12.25 per cent and LPG of 39 per cent came from separate work, and without it the operation would still burn fuel on site.

Treat guest comfort as a fixed constraint. Energy management that guests notice will not survive a season, which is why automation rather than curtailment is the route in hospitality.

Say which numbers are targets. Distinguishing achieved reductions from the 2028 and 2050 ambitions keeps the reporting credible while the target-setting work identified by the gap analysis is completed.