Yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Alice Springs hotel in Australia, the largest building-mounted solar energy system in the southern hemisphere was switched on. The new energy system costs $3.3 million but will hopefully reduce the hotels energy consumption by 40 to 80 percent, depending on the time of year. Their energy efficiency programme also hopes to cut energy consumption by a further 18 percent. 3110 light bulbs will be replaced with energy efficient options as part of the energy efficiency programme, as well as the replacement of shower heads with new energy efficient ones to save water and gas. The amount of water saved is enough to fill over 30 Olympic swimming pools. The rooftop solar panel system will save the most amount of energy, reducing the hotels annual carbon footprint by 420 tonnes of CO2. I find it commendable that such a high profile hotel chain is doing something to save energy and the planet.