Hotel to generate power by installing electricity-producing bikes

Guests using the gym at the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers will not only get fit, but they will also soon start producing electricity for the hotel.

The 366-bedroom Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, which describes itself as one of the world’s greenest hotels, is to install electricity producing bicycles on 19 April in an effort to become more energy efficient.

In return for producing 10 watt hours of electricity or more for the hotel, guests will be given a complimentary locally produced meal, worth approximately DKK200 (£23.80).

Guests using the electric bicycles will be able to monitor how much electricity they’re producing via iPhones mounted on the handle bars.  And from June, they will be able to race against the hotel’s solar panel system in a bid to produce the most electricity.

Attending the launch of the hotel at the end of 2009, Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister Lene Espersen said that the opening of the hotel was a great day for both the environment and the city of Copenhagen.

“I believe that green thinking is not just good for the environment but is also good for the bottom line,” he said. “I have no doubt that businesses that take an environmentally responsible approach have the edge over their competitors as leisure and business guests alike are increasingly choosing hotels based on their environmental credentials.”

The hotel is a member of the UN Global Compact, has EU Green Building and Green Key certification and is working towards becoming carbon neutral.

Its green credentials include the first groundwater-based cooling and heating system in Denmark, which is expected to reduce the energy used in the hotel for heating and cooling by almost 90%; low energy lighting and hand dryers; and the largest solar panel park in Northern Europe to be integrated into a building.

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