By necessity or design, Caribbean resorts are going off-grid: Travel Weekly

It is a challenge to become a green resort. It is one that many Caribbean resort owners are not afraid of.

Some hotels in the region are doing their part by reducing or eliminating single-use plastic, using local materials or offering farm-to-table dining, but others are going completely off the grid. The owners are motivated by their values.

The Golden Rock Dive & Nature Resort has 32 rooms and is powered by a solar farm. Peter Barnhoorn, the resort's CEO, said that the power is generated four times a day. The resort uses 2megawatts during the day and 1megawatt at night.

The Golden Rock Dive and Nature Resort is powered by solar panels.

The recent Ian is an example of how close any utility can be to being offline. Golden Rock's setup was designed to be able to handle a Category 4 Hurricane.

The 14-suite Coulibri Ridge on Dominica is two miles from the local power grid. It has 100% power sufficiency, thanks to solar and wind energy, and up to 200,000 gallons of rain can be captured in a network of cisterns. Rain water was used to mix the concrete. A solar power plant was the first building constructed.

Coulibri Ridge's objective was to build and operate a resort in an exceptional natural setting offering sustainable, high-end comfort and amenities while being self-sufficient for electrical power and water supply.

The Lovango Resort and Beach Club in the U.S. Virgin Islands hopes to be powered by solar and wind in the next two years. The hotel uses a desalination system to convert water from the sea into usable liquid. The system that turns glass bottles into sand is being implemented.

There is a combination of solar and wind at the Lovango Resort.

Mark Snider said that they knew from the start that they would have to do this.

The Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort in Oranjestad, Aruba, is in the middle of conveniences not afforded to other resorts.

The owner and CEO of the resort said that it is easy to stay plugged in to fossil fuels because of the location. We are not off the grid. We chose to exist in the most sustainable way possible.

The first hotel to win a Global U.N. Climate Action Award was the Caribbean's first certified carbon-neutral hotel.

The adults-only, 104-room resort wants to become carbon negative by the year 2023. Efforts include using paint that reduces energy consumption by 20%. In the private sector, the resort's solar panel grid is the biggest.

The LionsDive Beach Resort gets 70% of its daytime use power from 600 solar panels, and there are plans to add a new building with a roof completely covered by solar panels next year. Guests at the resort can fill their bottles with chilled water at the taps, thanks to a partnership between the resort and a local company.

The LionsDive Beach Resort gets most of its power from the sun. The photo was taken at the LionsDive Beach Resort.

The pros and cons of going green

Some resorts cited high upfront costs and logistics as negatives while sharing similar positives, such as environmental satisfaction and good customer feedback.

Barnhoorn said that maintenance requires upkeep. It costs time to replace materials in a remote part of the Caribbean.

The owners are not going to give up. These investments have long-term outlooks.

She said that the initial investment could be recuperated within five years. When the utility grid electricity is expensive and often uses fossil fuel to power it, this model could be replicated everywhere.