Budget hotel brand Premier Inn has opened its first property to operate using 100 per cent renewable energy.

The new-build property in the UK town of Swindon is designed to operate without a connection to the mains gas supply and will be powered entirely by renewable electricity. The hotel has also been designed to meet BREEAM sustainability standards and optimise energy use.

Initiatives at the hotel include a heat pump to produce hot water, low-energy LED lighting, onsite solar panels and a mechanical ventilation system to keep the building at an “optimal temperature in all seasons”.

The Swindon hotel will also only purchase renewable electricity from the grid, which is in line with the policy set out by Premier Inn’s owner Whitbread for all of its owned operations in the UK and Germany.

All new-build Premier Inn hotels are set to be built to this all-electric specification from 2026, while the chain plans to retrofit existing properties with emissions-reducing technology in the coming years as it looks to remove all gas connections to its hotels by 2040.

Richard Aldread, Whitbread’s head of construction in the UK regions and Ireland, called the opening of the first all-electric hotel a “significant milestone” in reducing its operational emissions to zero by 2040. 

“Swindon’s 100 per cent renewably powered Premier Inn shows that sustainability and affordability can be two sides of the same coin and is part of a string of investments in innovative, sustainable properties at Whitbread,” he added.

“Premier Inn Swindon Town Centre is our first all-electric hotel without connection to a mains gas supply and is the culmination of years of hard work and commitment to designing and operating lower-carbon hotels – which has helped us reduce direct operational emissions by over 50 per cent since 2016.”