Have you ever been frozen by sunlight?  I know this sounds like an oxymoron, so let me tell you all about it…

Yesterday I followed a back of house tour with the sparky Engineering team.  We’d reached the Staff Accommodation Village when I stopped, frozen to the spot, hypnotised by the beautiful light dancing off the roofs. I was captivated by its pure energy!

Coming round from my reverie, I got the feeling I was being watched and turned to find Henriette Heron a few paces away.  I should have been filled with fright that I might be her dinner, but I just had to find out more.

“Why, it’s one of the Maldives’ largest resort-based solar installations; you’re looking at over 3,100 panels – spanning over 5,380m² – installed by Austrian experts, Swimsol,” she said matter-of-factly. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Before I could protest I was in her beak looking down on our island home: a tiny drop in the ocean – flat as a pancake too.

“As the world’s lowest lying country, we’ll be the first to be directly affected by rising sea levels,” Henriette mumbled with me in her beak. “That’s why the Maldives are on a mission to be carbon neutral, using 100% renewable energy.”

Have you ever been frozen by sunlight?  I know this sounds like an oxymoron, so let me tell you all about it…

Yesterday I followed a back of house tour with the sparky Engineering team.  We’d reached the Staff Accommodation Village when I stopped, frozen to the spot, hypnotised by the beautiful light dancing off the roofs. I was captivated by its pure energy!

Coming round from my reverie, I got the feeling I was being watched and turned to find Henriette Heron a few paces away.  I should have been filled with fright that I might be her dinner, but I just had to find out more.

“Why, it’s one of the Maldives’ largest resort-based solar installations; you’re looking at over 3,100 panels – spanning over 5,380m² – installed by Austrian experts, Swimsol,” she said matter-of-factly. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Before I could protest I was in her beak looking down on our island home: a tiny drop in the ocean – flat as a pancake too.

“As the world’s lowest lying country, we’ll be the first to be directly affected by rising sea levels,” Henriette mumbled with me in her beak. “That’s why the Maldives are on a mission to be carbon neutral, using 100% renewable energy.”

Over the next glorious half hour I heard from Henriette how the panels generate between 900,000 and 1.1 million kWh of energy every year – enough to power all of Landaa’s 103 rooms, villas and suites for over a month, saving between 250,000 and 300,000 litres of diesel each year.

“That’s the equivalent of driving all the way round the world 94 times,” Henriette concluded. “Or charging one of the Resort’s eco-friendly electric golf cars over 82,000 times!”

The tour didn’t stop there; I got my first aerial views of Blu and the lagoon.  Oh to be a bird and enjoy such aerial enchantment every day…  But important land-based business beckoned.

As Henriette placed me back on the beach,
I scuttled off to turn off the fairy lights at
Hermit HQ – best save the solar energy for necessities!
Make sure you do the same!

Over the next glorious half hour I heard from Henriette how the panels generate between 900,000 and 1.1 million kWh of energy every year – enough to power all of Landaa’s 103 rooms, villas and suites for over a month, saving between 250,000 and 300,000 litres of diesel each year.

“That’s the equivalent of driving all the way round the world 94 times,” Henriette concluded. “Or charging one of the Resort’s eco-friendly electric golf cars over 82,000 times!”

The tour didn’t stop there; I got my first aerial views of Blu and the lagoon.  Oh to be a bird and enjoy such aerial enchantment every day…  But important land-based business beckoned.

As Henriette placed me back on the beach, I scuttled off to turn off the fairy lights at Hermit HQ – best save the solar energy for necessities! Make sure you do the same!