New Quonset Hotel Showcases 'Green' Techniques

Hot springs in North Kingstown? Not really.

The new, four-story TownePlace Suites by Marriott Hotel, now taking shape on Gate Road across from The Shops at Quonset Point, will use geothermal energy to provide part of its heating and cooling. 

But that does not mean engineers, who dug 18 wells 500 feet deep and inserted 8-inch pipes in each one, tapped boiling geysers hidden belowground.

"We weren't looking for 80-degree water," explains Lance Bennett, executive vice president of operations for Pro Con Inc., the Manchester, N.H., firm responsible for designing and building the new hotel.

Water temperatures in the range of 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit provide enough of a differential with surface temperatures to create a closed-loop geothermal heat pump system that will heat and cool the common areas of the 103-room hotel. Guest rooms, which include kitchens, will rely on conventional electric heat pumps.

All that drilling makes initial geothermal costs higher than those of conventional systems, but energy savings will recoup that investment in about 10 years, Bennett says. After that, geothermal energy will cost essentially nothing. The quarter-inch-thick pipes are encased by grout in underground ledge, or rock. "There is little chance of failure," Bennett says.

The geothermal system is just one element of the hotel's construction that is expected to reduce energy costs by 30 percent over a conventional hotel and to earn it certification as an LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) facility.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, "LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts."

Aside from the geothermal system, some other LEED aspects of Quonset's Marriott Towne Place Suites are:

•   Landscaping with drought-resistant plants
• A 2,000-gallon cistern in the parking lot that will collect rainwater for the lawn
•   High-quality insulation
•   High-efficiency windows
•   Solar-reflective roof tiles.

More than half of the construction materials came from within 500 miles of the building site, Bennett notes, and more than 80 percent of the waste from the 4.6-acre site has been recycled – including old concrete uncovered while digging the wells.

Robert E. Shapiro, who manages the project for Quonset Hotel LLC, says designers considered using wind energy, but the height of wind turbines so close to the Quonset Airport would have required FAA approval.

Shapiro expects a large percentage of the hotel's customers to be extended-stay business travelers visiting the 164 companies on Quonset Point, with an average stay of four days. The hotel, expected to open in March, will have a pool and workout room, and will serve breakfast, but boasts no full-service restaurant. Shapiro projects the hotel will create 13-20 full-time jobs.

Why are the developers so motivated to minimize environmental impacts? Shapiro said his company wants to be socially responsible, to reduce energy costs long-term and to make the property attractive to other energy-conscious organizations, including one major potential client: The U.S. government, which does a lot of business at Quonset and encourages its employees traveling on business to stay in LEED-certified facilities.