2014 ended with two important stories for Maldives tourism.
One is the opening of Amillafushi in Baa atoll which has been a long time in the works and looks a little bit different compared to most other resorts. Amilla Fushi has 71 rooms and is the newest addition to the tourism industry.
There was also the all important story of Gasfinolhu resort going fully solar powered which is a first for any resort in Maldives. According to the resort they have installed 6000 sq meters of solar panels which is enough to power 1.6mw of electricity per day. Gasfinolhu has been renovated from a 30 room resort to 52 rooms which includes 30 water bungalows and is fully solar powered. The owner estimates he will be able to recover the cost of investment in 6 to 7 years.
It’s a good start which will get other tourism big shots to think about what to do next to reduce the energy bill for their resorts. Since the story and in very unrelated news the oil producer club of nations has started cutting down on fuel prices which is currently just the double of price level before the first Iraq war. Nobody seems to know the reason for the sharp decline in fuel price; some citing this as a price war initiated by oil producing nations to kill off fracking industry in US to make the practice and other alternative fuel sources unviable (including solar). Whatever the politics of oil there is no reason not to tap off to the energy of sun especially when we have it all year round and in abundance.
Maldives Resort Workers 