Intriguing to hear that The K Club https://www.kclub.ie/ in Co Kildare has become the first hydro-powered five-star hotel in Ireland – and even more so when the back story shows how the hotel has taken a pioneering step in sustainability by harnessing the power of the River Liffey, which flows through the grounds.
Originally installed more than a century ago by previous owners of the estate, the Barton family, the generator supplied electricity to Straffan House (the original house at the heart of The K Club Hotel) for over 60 years, but it wasn’t designed to meet the energy demands of a luxury five-star hotel. Enter Eco Hydro https://www.ecohydro.energy/ enlisted by K Club owner, Michael Fetherston, to restore and improve the historic weir – and install the new Eco Hydro unit which now achieves 92% efficiency, producing 90 kW of continuous power when in operation, which represents over 70% of the hotel’s total energy.
Back to the future perhaps, as K Club GM Paul Heery points out that Ireland was once 100% powered by renewable energy… But it’s a remarkable journey and, as Eco Hydro MD Robert Quirke says, ‘Through restoring and reactivating this part of our country’s history, we have made The K Club one of Ireland’s most sustainable hotels. Not bad for a solution which all fits inside a garden shed!” So no surprise, perhaps, that last November, in Virginia, USA, The K Club was awarded Historic Hotels Worldwide Sustainability Champion https://www.historichotels.org/press/press-releases/2024-historic-hotels-worldwide-annual-awards-of-excellence-winners-announced