CHP in the Hotel and Casino 

Market Sectors
 

Prepared for: 

U.S. EPA 

CHP Partnership 

December 2005 

Prepared by: 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 

www.eea-inc.com 

For more information about the EPA CHP Partnership, please 

visit: www.epa.gov/chp or email: chp@epa.gov. 

For more information about ENERGY STAR for the hospitality 

industry, please visit: www.energystar.gov/hospitality. 
CHP in the Hotel and Casino Market Sectors 

Note: This report was initially released in December 2005. In November 2007, EPA completed an 

addendum to this report containing updated market information. The 2007 addendum can be found on 

the CHP Partnership Web site at www.epa.gov/chp/documents/hotel_casino_addendum.pdf. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Hotels and casinos have a number of characteristics that make them good targets for installing 

combined heat and power (CHP) systems. The facilities operate around the clock year-round; a portion 

of the industry has significant thermal and electric loads even at night: they have significant air 

conditioning requirements that could be met with thermally activated technologies running off the waste 

heat of an on-site generator; and there are establishments in every state in the U.S. 

Hotel and Casino Industry Structure 

The industry consists of nearly 48,000 establishments with over 4.4 million guest rooms. Table 

ES1 shows the breakdown by size. The industry revenues for 2004 were $113.7 billion, up 8% from the 

previous year. 

Table ES1 Number of Hotels and Lodging Establishments by Size 

Number of 

Rooms Property Rooms Average 

Rooms 

<75 27,464 1,163,668 42 

75-149 14,326 1,524,099 106 

150-299 4,235 847,089 200 

300-500 1,070 398,491 372 

>500 503 478,561 951 

Total 47,598 4,411,908 93 

Source: American Hotel & Lodging Industry Association, 2005 Lodging Industry Profile 

Casinos and gaming overlap in the hotel and lodging industry to the extent that there are nearly 

300 land-based casinos with associated lodging. There are commercial gaming operations in 11 states. 

The two largest commercial gaming centers are in Nevada (Las Vegas, Reno) and New Jersey (Atlantic 

City.) The Midwest commercial gaming industry consists exclusively of riverboat and dockside casinos 

(Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri) except for 3 land based casinos in Michigan. The next biggest gaming 

center is in the South with casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Southern commercial gaming 

market is primarily riverboat and dockside with one land-based casino in Louisiana. Colorado and South 

Dakota in the West both allow limited stakes gambling casinos. These facilities bring in much less 

revenue than the unrestricted casinos in the larger markets. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. i Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
In addition to the commercial industry there are Tribal casinos in 28 states (Class III casinos 

relevant to this study in 21 states.) Figure ES1 shows the distribution of casino operations by state and 

type. 

Figure ES1 Geographical Distribution of Casino Gaming by Type 

Hotel Market Trends 

The hotel industry is finally breaking out of the disastrous recession that followed the 9/11/2001 

terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the three years following 9/11 the hotel 

industry had a 36.2% decline in profits. In 2004, this declining trend has turned around with a 7.6% 

increase in revenues and an 11.4 % increase in profits compared with 2003. Resort hotels achieved the 

greatest increase in profitability in 2004 with operating profits growing by 17.2%. Limited service hotels 

gained the least with profits up only 6.2%. Full service, suite, and convention hotels all saw profits rise 

by over 10%. 

Luxury hotels (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Fairmont) represent the fastest growing market 

segment. The worst performing segment is the economy segment (Motel 6, Red Roof, Days). Limited 

service hotels (Hampton Inn, Country Inns & Suites, HI Express) are gaining at the expense of full 

service mid-level chains (Holiday Inn, Ramada, Best Western). 

Consistent with the strength of the luxury market sector, one of the top trends in the casino/resort 

segment of the lodging industry is known as entertainment convergence. Destination casinos and resorts 

seek to broaden the appeal of their facilities, i.e., attract more people, and to provide a variety of 

attractions so that guests will lengthen their stay. These new resorts offer gaming, shopping, golf, 

multiple entertainment venues, meeting and conference facilities, time-share condos, residential units, 

and other features. The addition of these multiple uses and components makes facilities much larger than 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. ii Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

they used to be and creates a correspondingly larger but also more diverse energy load that can be met 

by CHP. 

Existing CHP 

There are currently 98 hotels in the U.S. with CHP systems, representing over 63 MW of 

capacity. California contains the most CHP equipped hotels in the country by a large margin with New 

Jersey and New York coming in second and third. Due to the load profiles of hotels the majority of CHP 

systems that are installed are under 500 kW. Figure ES2 shows this size dispersion with an equal 

amount of systems falling in the 0 to 100 kW and the 100 to 500 kW categories. The systems in the 

larger categories are mainly located at resort hotels with larger campuses that require more power. There 

are three hotel casino resorts with CHP systems, two of which are in the largest two categories with 

capacities of 4.9 MW and 5.2 MW. 

Size Range # Sites 

0-99 kW 40 

100-499 kW 39 

500-999 kW 5 

1,000-4,999 kW 10 

>5 MW 4 

10% 4%

5% 0-99 kW 

41% 100-499 kW 

500-999 kW 

1,000-4,999 kW 

>5 MW 

40% 

Figure ES2 CHP Systems in the Lodging Industry by Size 

Energy Consumption in Hotels and Casinos 

Figure ES3 shows annual energy costs per available room by type of hotel property.1

 Resort 

hotels pay the most per available room for energy -- $2,080 in 2003. Convention hotels are the next most 

energy intensive followed by full-service and all-suite hotels. Per available room energy costs for 

extended stay and limited service hotels are much less than resort hotels at $611 and $573 respectively. 

About three fourths of energy costs are for electricity and one fourth for fuel. 

1

 Robert Mendelbaum, “Hotel Utility Costs Surge Protection is Needed,” Hotel Online Special Report, PKF 

Hospitality Research March 2004. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. iii Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Resort Hotels 

Convention Hotels 

Full-Service Hotels 

All-Suite Hotels 

Extended Stay 

Limited Service Hotels 

All Hotels 

2003 Energy Costs

 per Available Room (PAR) 

$0 

$500 

$1,000 

$1,500 

$2,000 

$2,500 

Fuel 

Electric 

$ PAR
 

Figure ES3 2003 Energy Consumption Expenditures per Available Room by Type of Hotel 

For the industry as a whole, energy costs (2003) were $1,254 per available room. Based on the 

4.4 million available rooms for the industry, the total energy bill is $5.2 billion or about 5% of total 

industry revenues. 

The EPA Energy Star Program has energy usage data for 1,222 hotels that are participating in the 

Energy Star labeling program. These data were analyzed for this study to provide insight on electric and 

natural gas utilization by hotels. Table ES2 shows the results by chain scale for the hotels that recorded 

usage of both electricity and gas. There is a general trend of increasing energy intensity in all climates as 

the price and service classification increases. This trend is strongest in looking at the EUIs in the 

economy and limited service midscale hotel categories compared to full service hotels. The highest EUIs 

occur in the highest scale hotels. The impacts of climate on gas heating and electric air conditioning can 

be seen to some extent. The relationship is stronger for gas EUI which increases in most cases as the 

climate becomes colder. Climate impact on electric consumption is more difficult to see; in only three of 

the five hotel types is there a higher electric EUI in the hot climate compared to the cold climate. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. iv Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

Table ES2 Gas and Electric Energy Usage Intensities by Climate and Chain Scale 

Climate Grand 

Hotel Type Data Cold Hot Moderate Total 

Hotel (Economy and Budget) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

9 

12.07 

31.64 

3 6 

8.94 8.35 

19.25 69.66 

18 

10.31 

42.25 

Hotel (Midscale w/o Food and Beverage) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

16 

11.66 

36.13 

12 15 

15.01 11.97 

33.36 47.81 

43 

12.70 

39.43 

Hotel (Midscale w/Food and Beverage) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

127 

18.02 

70.67 

55 83 

15.62 15.00 

24.49 48.18 

265 

16.57 

54.04 

Hotel (Upscale) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

92 

16.21 

52.44 

145 210 

16.65 13.24 

35.67 38.76 

447 

14.96 

40.57 

Hotel (Upper Upscale) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

94 

17.56 

54.64 

94 121 

20.26 16.83 

42.78 49.47 

309 

18.10 

49.01 

Total Number of Hotels 338 309 435 1082 

Total Average of Elec kWh/sf/yr 16.94 17.43 14.46 16.08 

Total Average of Gas KBtu/sf 58.58 35.59 44.27 46.26 

Typical hotel characteristics for a 195,000 s.f., 230 room full-service hotel were developed for a 

range of climates. Energy consumption in Las Vegas and in Minneapolis was modeled to identify the 

energy consumption in hot and cold climates respectively. Anaheim, CA represents a mild climate. This 

comparison is shown in Table ES3. 

Table ES3 Energy Consumption Breakdown by Climate for a 195,000 s.f. Full Service Hotel 

Location 

Climate Type 

Units Anaheim 

Mild 

Las 

Vegas 

Hot 

Minneapoli 

s 

Cold 

Thousand 

Annual Electric Use kWh 

Million 

3,131 3,548 2,960 

Annual Gas Use Btu 

Million 

7,836 8,780 19,660 

Base Gas Demand Btu 5,038 4,710 6,240 

Electric EUII kWh/s.f. 16.06 18.19 15.18 

Gas EUI kBtu/s.f. 40.18 45.03 100.82 

Peak Demand kW 745 840 832 

Average Demand kW 357 405 338 

Minimum Demand kW 250 260 240 

Peak Load/Avg. Load % of Avg 208% 207% 246% 

Min Load/Avg. Load % of Avg 70% 64% 71% 

CHP Sizing Strategies 

100% Electric/80% Thermal Use (kW) 

Max Size for 100% Electric Use (kW) 

144 

250 

134 

260 

178 

240 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. v Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Energy consumption can be characterized as follows: 

 Electric consumption ranges from 3 to 3.5 million kWh per year – hot climate cooling 

loads push total consumption up by 16% compared to mild and cold climate usage 

 Annual gas demand in the cold climate application is more than twice that of the hot and 

mild climate applications. 

 The CHP addressable thermal loads are the various water heating loads that are fairly 

constant throughout the year. These loads are fairly similar in the various climate 

applications varying only as a function of colder groundwater temperature in the cold 

climate application. In a warm climate application, 64% of the annual gas consumption 

represents the primary target for replacement with CHP supplied thermal energy. 

 Minimum electric loads are similar for the applications across climate types of 240-260 

kW. Minimum electric loads are important to CHP sizing and operating strategy because 

a system sized at or below this point can be run at full load continuously thereby 

maximizing the utilization of the equipment and minimizing operating complexity. 

 Sizing a CHP system to the addressable thermal load results in a system sized below the 

minimum electric demand. Sizes range from 134-178 kW. 

Energy consumption for large casino hotels was evaluated for two facilities, the Turning Stone 

Casino in New York and the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Based on this energy consumption 

data, loads were estimated for casino hotels in both a Northeast climate (Atlantic City) and a hot climate 

(Las Vegas.) Table ES4 summarizes energy consumption measures for a 2000 room casino hotel with 

and without absorption cooling for both a hot and cold climate. 

Table ES4 Load Analysis for Mega-Hotel in Alternative Locations and Configurations 

Energy Measure Units Actual Estimate 1 Estimate 2 Estimate 3 

Climate Atlantic 

City 

Absorptio 

Atlantic 

City Las Vegas 

Absorptio 

Las Vegas 

Cooling n Electric n Electric 

Annual Electric Consumption Million 

kWh/year 86.1 99.4 86.1 104.9 

Annual Gas Consumption MMBtu/year 498,441 229,364 538,220 159,748 

Electric Load Factor Percent 61% 53% 61% 56% 

Electric EUI kWh/year/s.f. 28.7 33.1 28.7 35.0 

Gas EUI KBtu/year/s.f. 166.1 76.5 179.4 53.2 

Peak Load MW 16.1 21.3 16.1 21.3 

Average Load MW 9.8 11.3 9.8 12.0 

Minimum Load MW 7.0 7.4 7.0 7.4 

Base Thermal Load MMBtu/hour 30 12 29 12 

Base Thermal Share of Total Percent 53% 46% 47% 66% 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. vi Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Technical and Economic Market Potential for CHP in Hotels and Casinos 

Table ES5 summarizes the results of the market screening. There are nearly 9,500 hotels of 

appropriate size to warrant consideration. To date, only 79 of the hotels within these size categories have 

installed CHP. Appropriately sized CHP systems installed in this target market provide a technical 

market potential of 2,773 MW. Based on a simple economic market screen undertaken using typical 

CHP cost and performance values for each size and average gas and electric prices by state, the 

economic market potential was estimated at 1,456 MW. 

Table ES5 Summary of Hotel CHP Market Screening Results 

Screening Approach 100-199 

Number of Rooms 

200-499 500-999 1000-1999 2000+ 

Total 

Hotels in U.S. 

Hotels with CHP 

6,323 

33 

2,614 379 116 

30 9 5 

32 

2 

9,464 

79 

Remaining Market (sites) 6,290 2,584 370 111 30 9,385 

Appropriate CHP Size (kW) 90 380 1,000 5,000 10,000 

Technical Market Potential (MW) 566 982 370 555 300 2,773 

Economic Market Potential (MW) 130 371 170 495 290 1,456 

% of Market Economic 22.9% 37.8% 45.9% 89.2% 96.7% 52.5% 

Conclusions 

This analysis has shown that there is significant market potential for CHP in the hotel and casino 

market. This market potential is concentrated in the larger, full-service facilities. While there are nearly 

48,000 hotels in the U.S., less than 10,000 of them have the usage and energy characteristics suitable for 

CHP using current technology. The economic cut-off for this analysis was set at 100-rooms or greater. 

The large mega-resort hotels of 1,000 rooms or greater represent a distinct and very important 

market segment. These huge facilities have more in common from an energy standpoint with a small 

university than with a small business hotel or roadside motel. These facilities are typically, though not 

exclusively, associated with the casino gaming. There are multiple restaurants, nightclubs and other 

entertainment venues, spas, casinos, health clubs, movie theaters, shops, and often large attractions – 

zoos, aquaria, fountains, even an “active” volcano. The facilities occupy millions of square feet of 

building space and the energy usage intensity per square foot is much higher than for the typical business 

hotel. 

There are 148 hotels in the U.S. with more than 1,000 rooms. The economic market potential for 

CHP in these mega-sites represents 54% of the total economic potential for CHP in the hotel industry. 

There are 32 hotels with more than 2,000 rooms and 75% of them are on the Las Vegas strip. These 

facilities could support CHP systems with an average size of 10 MW each representing 20% of the 

economic potential. 

One of the big drivers for CHP in these large facilities is to provide the thousands of tons of air 

conditioning needed using the waste heat from the on-site electric generation. Industrial gas turbine 

generators can produce power for the facility baseload needs and the high temperature exhaust can be 

converted to steam in heat recovery steam generators that can be used to drive a central heating and 

cooling plant. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. vii Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
The remaining identified market is in hotels with 100 to 999 rooms. These facilities are less 

energy intensive than the large casino and resort hotels, but they still have round-the-clock electric and 

thermal loads that can effectively support CHP. As the hotel sizes get smaller, the cost of absorption 

chillers goes up, and their effectiveness goes down. It is not considered cost-effective with current 

technology to try to include absorption cooling in a hotel system until the generator size reaches about 

300 kW. This size can support about a 100-ton absorption system. Hotels need to have more than 200 

rooms before such a system would be warranted. 

In smaller hotel sizes, without adding cooling, it is very important to size the system to the 

available thermal load. As shown in Section 4, a system with 70-80% seasonal utilization of the 

available thermal load is going to be utilizing only about 60% the capacity of a system that is sized to the 

minimum facility electric load. The problem is that there are fairly wide swings in thermal energy 

consumption during the day, with nighttime values dropping considerably. The key thermal load is the 

hot water for the guest rooms, though it may be possible to augment these loads with hot water needs for 

the kitchen, laundry, pools, and even space heating seasonally. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. viii Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

CHP in the Hotel and Casino Market Sectors 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Hotels and casinos have a number of characteristics that make them good targets for installing an 

economic combined heat and power (CHP) system. They operate around the clock year-round; a portion 

of the industry has significant thermal and electric loads even at night: they have significant air 

conditioning requirements that could be met with thermally activated technologies running off the waste 

heat of an on-site generator; and there are establishments in every state in the U.S. There are 98 hotels in 

21 states that have operating CHP systems; these systems have an electric capacity of 63 MW. 

This report describes the hotel and casino industry characteristics and trends and provides an 

evaluation of energy consumption by facility type and location. This characterization is the basis for a 

technical and economic screening of CHP market potential. The analysis was conducted to support the 

Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership Program as a means to 

provide information and tools to industry in order to encourage cost effective implementation of CHP in 

applications that provide economic, efficiency, and environmental benefits. 

The report is organized in the following sections: 

2.	 Overview of the Hotel and Casino Industries –an analysis of the industry structure, 

geographical distribution and trends. 

3.	 Existing CHP in Hotels and Casinos –the current inventory of operating CHP systems. 

4.	 Energy Consumption and Load Profiles –energy usage characteristics related to CHP 

implementation including electric and thermal energy usage intensities, load shapes, and 

electric and thermal energy coincidence. 

5.	 CHP Technical and Economic Potential – a screening model of CHP market potential by 

size and state 

6.	 Conclusions – overall evaluation of the competitiveness of CHP in the industry. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 1 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
2. OVERVIEW OF THE HOTEL AND CASINO INDUSTRIES 

Hotels and other lodging industry accommodations vary greatly in size and in the services they 

provide: 

Large hotels and motels offer a variety of services for their guests, including coffee shops, 

restaurants, cocktail lounges with live entertainment, retail shops, barber and beauty shops, laundry and 

valet services, swimming pools, fitness centers and health spas. Hotels and motels often have banquet 

rooms, exhibit halls, and ballrooms to accommodate conventions, business meetings, wedding 

receptions, and other social gatherings. Conventions and business meetings are major sources of revenue 

for these hotels and motels. 

Resort hotels and motels offer luxurious surroundings with a variety of recreational facilities such 

as swimming pools, golf courses, tennis courts, game rooms, and health spas, as well as planned social 

activities and entertainment. Resorts are located primarily in vacation destinations near mountains, the 

seashore, or other attractions. As a result, the business of many resorts fluctuates with the season. Some 

resort hotels and motels provide additional convention and conference facilities to encourage customers 

to combine business with pleasure. 

Extended-stay hotels combine features of a resort and a residential hotel. Typically, guests use 

these hotels for a minimum of five consecutive nights. These facilities usually provide rooms with fully 

equipped kitchens, entertainment systems, ironing boards and irons, office spaces with computer and 

telephone lines, access to fitness centers, and other amenities. 

Residential hotels provide living quarters for permanent and semi-permanent residents. They 

combine the comfort of apartment living with the convenience of hotel services. Many have dining 

rooms and restaurants that also are open to the general public. 

Casino hotels provide lodging in hotel facilities with a casino on the premises. The casino 

provides table wagering games and may include other gambling activities, such as slot machines and 

sports betting. Casino hotels generally offer a full range of services and amenities and may also contain 

conference and convention facilities. 

In addition to hotels and motels, the industry includes bed-and-breakfast inns, recreational vehicle 

(RV) parks, campgrounds, and rooming and boarding houses that provide lodging for overnight guests. 

Other short-term lodging facilities in this industry include guesthouses, or small cottages located on the 

same property as a main residence, and youth hostels—dormitory-style hotels with few frills, occupied 

mainly by students traveling on low budgets. Also included are rooming and boarding houses, such as 

fraternity houses, sorority houses, off-campus dormitories, and workers’ camps. These establishments 

provide temporary or longer-term accommodations that may serve as a principal residence for the period 

of occupancy. These establishments also may provide services such as housekeeping, meals, and laundry 

services. 

Hotels and motels make up the majority of lodging establishments and tend to provide more 

services than other lodging options. 

2.1 Lodging Industry Market Data Sources 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 2 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

There are a number of government and private data sources that publish statistics for the lodging 

industry; however, the definition of the industry and the inclusion or exclusion of certain sub-sectors is 

not uniform. The industry is variously defined to include all types of lodging, from upscale hotels to RV 

parks. Motels, resorts, casino hotels, bed-and-breakfast inns, boarding houses, dormitories, and nursing 

homes are also are included in some government statistics. Table 1 shows the data sources that were 

used in this study to define the scope of the lodging industry and the sectors of most interest to CHP 

development. 

Table 1 Data Sources Used, Establishments Included, and Data Available 

Data Source Base Year Establishment 

s Included 

Target 

Establishment 

s 

Market 

Segments 

Included 

(Relevant 

Segments) 

Data Included 

U.S. Economic 

Census 

2002 

Partial; 

1997 

60,870 

(2002) 

46,446 

(2002) 11 (6) Sales, Payroll, Employees 

U.S. EIA/CBECS 

1999 

Complete 

2003 

Summary 

153,000 

(1999) 

89,000 

(1999) 5 (2) 

building size, age, 

energy equipment, 

energy consumption, 

employment 

American Hotel 

& Lodging 

Industry 

Association 

2004 47,584 47,584 5 (5) 

rooms, RevPAR, 

occupancy rates, 

promotional spending, 

other marketing 

statistics 

PKF Hospitality 

Research 

(proprietary) 

2004 sample 5,000 n.a. 6 (6) 

Financial statistics --

published utility 

consumption costs by 

type of facility 

Smith Travel 

Research, Inc. 

(proprietary) 

2004 

Updated 

yearly 

49,122 all 7 (7) 

Establishments by state 

and by chain scale2

I – 

additional detailed data 

available by subscription 

EPA Energy Star 

Database 

Application 

s to date 1222 1222 6 

Hotels applying for 

Energy star labeling 

provide size, chain 

scale, number of rooms, 

electric and gas usage 

Meeting Industry 

Megasite3 2005 24,563 17,423 8(2) 

Website designed to 

allow meeting planners 

to screen facilities by 

location, number of 

rooms, meeting space 

and other factors 

U.S. Economic Census – The Economic Census provides state-by-state (and more specific) 

geographical detail on businesses defined as accommodations. Within this classification system (NAICS 

721) there are 11 submarkets – the first five submarkets are the focus of this assessment: 

2 Chain scale refers to the type of hotel chain. There are seven categories: luxury, upper upscale, upscale, midscale 

with food and beverage, midscale without food and beverage, economy, and independent. 3 http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/index.jsp 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 3 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

1. hotels more than 25 rooms, 

2. hotels less than 25 rooms, 

3. motels, 

4. motor hotels, 

5. casino hotels, 

6. organization (membership) hotels, 

7. bed & breakfast inns, 

8. other traveler accommodations, 

9. RV parks and campgrounds, 

10. recreational camps except campgrounds, and 

11. rooming & boarding houses. 

The number of establishments, revenues, and employment by sector are provided. The advantage 

of this data series is that it provides good geographical detail and highlights larger facilities, particularly 

casinos that would be targets for CHP. Partial data are available from the 2002 Economic Census. Full 

state-by-state data from 2002 have not been published4

, but are available from the 1997 Census. A key 

disadvantage of the data series is that there is no information on building size or number of guest rooms. 

EIA Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey – The CBECS data series has a 

variety of useful energy consumption and equipment characteristics statistics. The Lodging sector of 

CBECS is rather uniquely defined in that it includes nursing homes, and college dormitories – two 

sectors that are not generally considered part of the lodging industry. In addition to the inclusion of these 

sectors, there is not a good separation of the market segments of interest – hotels, motel, inn, resort, and 

other. There are only two submarkets that are considered part of the industry under consideration for this 

study – hotel and motel/inn/resort. There are complete tabulations of the data but cross tabulations are 

often not available in the public data. For example, there are breakdowns by type of equipment, building 

size, by subsector, and by region, but getting the type of equipment for a certain market segment and a 

specific building size isn’t available. The geographic detail only goes down to a multi-state regional 

level and the 1999 CBECS is somewhat out of date. There are very preliminary data available for the 

2003 CBECS, though there was not enough detail to be of use for this study. 

American Hotel and Lodging Industry Association Lodging Industry Profile – The AH&LA 

annual industry trends publication provides good information on the annual trends in the lodging 

industry. The market is made up of 5 segments: suburban, highway, urban, airport, and resort. Facility 

sizes are characterized by number of guest rooms, though this information is not reported by sub-market. 

Some trends are called out by region or state, but the basic data series is for the total U.S. The AH&LA 

does not report energy statistics but their research group provided references to other sources. The 

information is reported every year. 

PKF Hospitality Research – PKF publishes a survey of financial trends for 5,000 of the largest 

hotels in the U.S. This series is available on a subscription basis. Energy and utility expenditure 

information and hotel revenue and profitability data are used in this report based on publicly available 

articles and press releases concerning the detailed survey. 

4

 as of October, 2005. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 4 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Smith Travel Research, Inc. – STR provides a number of industry statistical reports on a 

subscription basis. Customized reports for individual metropolitan areas are available that provide 

physical and financial information on hotels within a local market. The data set used for this study was a 

comparison of hotels (number of hotels and number of rooms) by chain scale and state. 

EPA Energy Star Database – There are approximately 1200 hotels that are participating in 

EPA’s Energy Star program. Approximately 10% of the hotels participating have received Energy Star 

certification. These data were used for this study to evaluate gas and electricity consumption in hotels by 

size, number of rooms, and geographic location. This analysis is presented in Section 4. 

Meeting Industry Megasite – A website designed for meeting planners, the MIMegasite allows 

a registered user to search their database of nearly 25,000 meeting facilities. The site includes 

information on hotels, golf resorts, convention centers, conference centers, bed and breakfasts, 

convention & visitors’ bureaus, tourism bureaus, and other venues. Only the first two categories were 

searched for this report. Search criteria include country, state, major market, hotel size, largest meeting 

room, room rates, and available dates for meetings. The number of rooms criteria is very sensitive with 

20 categories to search from less than 25 to 2500+. Based on a particular screen, individual facilities are 

identified by name, with additional information provided on other amenities at the site. 

A number of other marketing firms sell industry statistics – Mintel, Standard & Poor, 

Datamonitor Business Information Center, Factiva, Business Source Premier, etc. The main 

disadvantage of these data series is the high cost and the limited focus on energy and utility issues. 

Data sources used for the casino hotel market segment, not shown in Table 1, are statistics and 

membership data maintained by the American Gaming Association and the National Indian Gaming 

Association. 

The remaining overview of the lodging market provides detail on the applications, sizes, 

geographic distribution, energy equipment, and energy use characteristics. Due to the lack of consistency 

in the source data described in Table 1, it was not possible to create a single internally consistent 

structure for the industry that covers all of these market characteristics. 

2.2 Lodging Industry Market Size 

As of the last Economic Census in 2002, there were 50,877 establishments in the economic 

category of travelers’ accommodations (NAICS 7211). The number of establishments by type is shown 

in Table 2. The detailed breakdown by state is not available yet for 2002 data, but the 1997 data are 

shown in Table 3 by type of facility and by state. 

Table 2 Economic Census Figures for Lodging (Accommodations) Industry 2002 and 1997 

Annualized 

Market Categories 2002 1997 Growth Rates 

%/yr 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 5 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Sites 

Sales 

($million 

) 

Sites Sales 

($million) Sites Sales 

Hotels (except casino hotels) with 25 

guestrooms or more 16,782 61,333 

1.34% 4.27% Hotels with less than 25 guestrooms 2,386 582 

Motels 46,163 90,541 21,829 9,206 

Motor hotels 2,139 2,206 

Organization hotels 52 124 

Casino hotels 283 34,385 257 20,652 1.95% 10.73% 

Bed & breakfast inns 3,537 890 2,898 687 4.07% 5.30% 

All other traveler accommodation 894 175 736 175 3.97% -0.02% 

RV (recreational vehicle) parks & 

campgrounds 4,157 1,733 4,085 1,394 0.35% 4.45% 

Recreational & vacation camps (except 

campgrounds) 3,177 1,740 3,513 1,341 -

1.99% 5.35% 

-

Rooming & boarding houses 2,659 719 3,485 757 5.27% -1.02% 

Total Accommodations 60,870 130,320 58,162 98,457 0.91% 5.77% 

Figure 1 shows the real revenue growth for the accommodations industry from 1997 to 2003. 

The total industry had revenues of just under $90 billion 2000 dollars. There was a small 1% recession in 

1998 and a larger 6% recession in 2001 caused by 9/11. About 70% of revenue in this sector is 

concentrated in the South and West. In addition, the Northeast and Midwest regions suffered greater 

declines in the recessionary periods and less robust recoveries indicating a continued shift in travel to the 

South and West. 

Accommodations

 Real Revenue Growth 

100,000 

90,000 

80,000 

0 200

70,000 

d $

West 

60,000 

ine

South 

30,000 

40,000 

50,000 

Millions Cha

Northeast 

Midwest 

20,000 

10,000 

0 

Figure 1 Growth in Accommodations Revenues by Region (Millions of Chained $2000) 

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 6 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Table 3 1997 Economic Census of Lodging Industry (NAIC 7211 Travelers’ 

Accommodations) Number of Establishments by Type and State 

Travelers' 

Hotels Hotels Casino Motor AccommoState >25rooms <25rooms Motels Hotels Hotels Other dations 

Alabama 257 17 304 0 29 10 617 

Alaska 111 30 86 0 6 48 281 

Arizona 340 32 436 2 46 61 917 

Arkansas 200 26 304 0 18 48 596 

California 1,856 292 2,384 1 236 396 5,165 

Colorado 389 86 540 14 56 150 1,235 

Connecticut 143 13 102 0 24 20 302 

D.C. 88 2 10 0 3 11 114 

Delaware 37 6 74 0 5 6 128 

Florida 1,382 156 1,436 2 111 123 3,210 

Georgia 641 42 606 0 57 65 1,411 

Hawaii 241 23 16 0 0 14 294 

Idaho 93 19 181 1 20 20 334 

Illinois 514 46 553 0 59 37 1,209 

Indiana 281 26 320 1 30 48 706 

Iowa 148 26 335 1 45 29 584 

Kansas 146 17 281 0 19 18 481 

Kentucky 234 15 303 0 27 24 603 

Louisiana 253 18 246 5 30 35 587 

Maine 138 53 326 0 28 185 730 

Maryland 264 18 209 0 24 38 553 

Massachusetts 315 63 322 1 38 188 927 

Michigan 455 100 705 1 53 131 1,445 

Minnesota 328 110 444 6 23 122 1,033 

Mississippi 181 16 246 11 20 39 513 

Missouri 383 45 514 3 52 79 1,076 

Montana 125 31 310 6 20 32 524 

Nebraska 93 11 247 0 12 14 377 

Nevada 87 16 254 170 20 7 554 

New Hampshire 114 22 157 0 21 106 420 

New Jersey 365 53 580 12 67 76 1,153 

New Mexico 170 36 359 0 28 77 670 

New York 759 119 811 0 71 162 1,922 

North Carolina 603 67 656 0 50 145 1,521 

North Dakota 59 14 143 0 15 2 233 

Ohio 444 32 556 0 65 62 1,159 

Oklahoma 172 14 318 0 17 15 536 

Oregon 196 51 517 6 44 72 886 

Pennsylvania 536 104 479 0 67 120 1,306 

Rhode Island 43 13 44 0 9 45 154 

South Carolina 386 41 479 1 44 48 999 

South Dakota 84 26 272 10 16 17 425 

Tennessee 504 31 552 1 50 69 1,207 

Texas 1,018 93 1,384 0 236 128 2,859 

Utah 149 21 248 0 20 32 470 

Vermont 103 51 140 0 20 137 451 

Virginia 487 32 563 0 59 96 1,237 

Washington 341 56 511 0 52 131 1,091 

West Virginia 96 19 161 0 15 23 314 

Wisconsin 351 108 555 2 48 120 1,184 

Wyoming 79 28 250 0 14 16 387 

Total U.S. 16,782 2,386 21,829 257 2,139 3,697 47,090 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 7 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
The statistics reported by the American Hotel & Lodging Industry Association (Table 4) show 

that as of year-end 2004, there were 47,598 properties with over 4.4 million guestrooms. The industry 

revenues for 2004 were $113.7 billion, up 8% from the previous year. 

Table 4 Number of Hotels and Lodging Establishments by Size 

Number of 

Rooms Property Rooms Average Rooms 

<75 27,464 1,163,668 42 

75-149 14,326 1,524,099 106 

150-299 4,235 847,089 200 

300-500 1,070 398,491 372 

>500 503 478,561 951 

Total 47,598 4,411,908 93 

Source: American Hotel & Lodging Industry Association, 2005 Lodging Industry Profile 

As will be discussed later, the larger the hotel, the greater the energy consumption, both overall 

and in terms of energy usage intensity per square foot. The high energy consumption in the roughly 1500 

hotels larger than 300 rooms represents the priority target for CHP development. 

Table 5 shows the distribution of hotels by state and by chain scale. Chain scale refers to the 

classification of hotel chains by the services offered and by cost ranging from luxury at the high end to 

economy and independent at the lower end. As shown in the table, the luxury and upper upscale chains 

both average more than 300 rooms/hotel nationally. Table 6 shows the total number of hotel rooms by 

state. Taken together these data can be analyzed to identify where the highest concentration of high end 

and large hotels reside. 

Table 7 shows the top ten markets for high end hotels, first by most luxury and upper upscale 

hotels per state and then the top ten states in terms of largest average size for upper upscale hotels. 

Luxury and upscale hotels are concentrated in two areas: resort areas like California, Florida, Nevada, 

Louisiana, and Arizona and in large metropolitan areas – convention centers in states with large 

metropolitan areas: California (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Texas (Houston), New York (New 

York City), Illinois (Chicago), Massachusetts (Boston.), and Washington, DC. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 8 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 5 Number of Hotels by State and by Chain Scale 

State 

Hotels 

Luxury Upper 

Upscale Upscale Midscale w/ F&B 

Midscale w/o 

F&B Economy Independen t Total 

Alabama 1 9 30 73 147 212 292 764 

Alaska 1 4 8 22 5 17 195 252 

Arizona 6 43 70 110 135 231 431 1026 

Arkansas 1 5 15 67 99 143 322 652 

California 43 203 249 516 381 942 3,094 5,428 

Colorado 8 37 56 104 143 188 634 1,170 

Connecticut - 16 38 35 33 65 151 338 

Delaware 1 5 9 13 20 20 76 144 

District of Columbia 11 21 11 8 1 7 52 111 

Florida 30 132 200 307 421 538 1,983 3,611 

Georgia 7 49 101 150 352 582 514 1,755 

Hawaii 18 25 43 30 - - 199 315 

Idaho 1 1 6 42 39 45 131 265 

Illinois 12 61 90 125 271 311 507 1,377 

Indiana 1 18 50 81 223 224 294 891 

Iowa - 6 12 51 121 194 220 604 

Kansas - 7 22 57 81 138 221 526 

Kentucky - 13 31 80 137 203 261 725 

Louisiana 7 19 34 106 106 126 328 726 

Maine - 4 4 25 21 37 410 501 

Maryland 2 30 39 72 90 122 235 590 

Massachusetts 9 37 65 74 68 88 479 820 

Michigan 3 28 65 135 237 266 615 1,349 

Minnesota 3 17 45 61 110 253 349 838 

Mississippi - 4 6 66 121 151 266 614 

Missouri 5 32 35 96 184 264 518 1,134 

Montana - 2 1 38 46 84 271 442 

Nebraska - 7 7 32 62 107 171 386 

Nevada 3 15 18 42 29 67 449 623 

New Hampshire - 4 11 15 21 20 270 341 

New Jersey - 44 61 82 77 123 674 1,061 

New Mexico 1 10 20 61 88 141 324 645 

New York 21 52 70 171 129 233 1,012 1,688 

North Carolina 2 35 81 144 350 376 684 1,672 

North Dakota - - 3 13 27 51 110 204 

Ohio 4 40 96 125 323 366 414 1,368 

Oklahoma - 13 23 71 87 151 314 659 

Oregon - 12 26 98 104 114 490 844 

Pennsylvania 4 39 85 153 225 260 465 1,231 

Rhode Island - 5 10 7 12 12 82 128 

South Carolina 1 20 36 77 204 226 523 1,087 

South Dakota - 1 4 30 51 108 180 374 

Tennessee 3 31 47 115 256 367 477 1,296 

Texas 14 110 224 370 623 818 1,519 3,678 

Utah 1 11 16 61 73 111 252 525 

Vermont 1 1 5 14 18 22 238 299 

Virginia 4 51 88 167 255 343 434 1,342 

Washington 5 21 36 113 107 146 547 975 

West Virginia - 2 5 25 53 70 157 312 

Wisconsin 1 10 37 99 140 208 561 1,056 

Wyoming 2 - 10 35 24 73 216 360 

National Total 

Avg. Rooms/Hotel 

237 

320 

1,362 

386 

2,354 

158 

4,664 6,930 

125 89 

9,964 

78 

23,611 

66 

49,122 

92 

Source: Smith Travel Research, Inc. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 9 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 6 Number of Hotel Rooms by State and by Chain Scale 

State 

Rooms 

Luxury Upper 

Upscale Upscale Midscale w/ F&B 

Midscale 

w/o F&B Economy Independent Total 

Alabama 329 2,968 3,579 7,428 12,303 14,778 18,224 59,609 

Alaska 547 1,616 1,043 2,616 509 1,220 11,027 18,578 

Arizona 2,525 13,527 10,605 12,342 13,335 19,740 28,966 101,040 

Arkansas 418 1,295 1,714 6,425 8,010 9,654 16,202 43,718 

California 12,550 82,332 43,333 59,872 33,988 72,181 176,516 480,772 

Colorado 1,901 11,357 9,048 11,854 12,912 13,069 37,158 97,299 

Connecticut - 4,904 5,047 4,469 3,528 5,206 10,391 33,545 

Delaware 216 1,039 1,098 1,399 1,718 1,664 4,060 11,194 

District of Columbia 2,919 10,704 2,646 2,136 100 898 6,764 26,167 

Florida 10,924 49,618 35,148 48,851 45,368 55,142 147,923 392,974 

Georgia 2,495 20,717 14,284 17,154 30,574 45,793 34,860 165,877 

Hawaii 6,441 18,191 8,484 6,989 - - 23,620 63,725 

Idaho 337 303 879 4,445 2,989 3,281 6,007 18,241 

Illinois 5,026 27,389 14,611 18,754 23,924 24,922 33,557 148,183 

Indiana 99 6,170 6,823 9,574 18,304 18,132 18,670 77,772 

Iowa - 1,547 1,649 6,395 9,012 10,889 12,042 41,534 

Kansas - 2,256 2,898 6,143 6,372 9,105 10,520 37,294 

Kentucky - 3,599 4,272 9,124 10,666 15,487 16,945 60,093 

Louisiana 2,739 9,781 5,972 14,854 10,302 11,621 23,668 78,937 

Maine - 714 394 2,965 1,993 2,753 18,389 27,208 

Maryland 412 9,067 6,447 11,096 9,528 11,210 15,589 63,349 

Massachusetts 1,925 14,438 10,241 9,739 7,497 7,068 26,266 77,174 

Michigan 1,140 8,003 8,645 16,870 20,842 20,640 33,575 109,715 

Minnesota 677 6,019 7,164 8,634 9,536 15,751 19,154 66,935 

Mississippi - 955 717 6,407 9,835 9,949 27,155 55,018 

Missouri 1,244 12,045 6,617 12,628 16,549 19,004 32,698 100,785 

Montana - 453 79 4,208 3,419 5,471 12,387 26,017 

Nebraska - 1,996 966 3,872 4,847 6,217 7,975 25,873 

Nevada 974 18,208 8,145 7,687 3,268 7,499 138,019 183,800 

New Hampshire - 926 1,547 1,904 2,036 1,457 11,987 19,857 

New Jersey - 15,152 10,971 11,303 8,608 10,343 45,291 101,668 

New Mexico 59 2,867 2,833 5,787 7,268 9,763 16,110 44,687 

New York 7,903 26,781 12,793 24,561 12,385 17,087 72,139 173,649 

North Carolina 406 10,414 10,357 16,861 31,681 31,550 36,471 137,740 

North Dakota - - 466 2,074 2,067 3,167 6,311 14,085 

Ohio 815 12,197 12,222 17,795 25,995 30,332 24,082 123,438 

Oklahoma - 4,801 3,160 7,539 6,696 10,461 16,209 48,866 

Oregon - 4,255 3,776 8,785 8,652 8,032 25,411 58,911 

Pennsylvania 1,553 12,920 14,558 20,277 21,173 20,297 26,250 117,028 

Rhode Island - 1,502 1,377 948 1,463 964 3,539 9,793 

South Carolina 255 5,903 4,940 8,956 18,054 18,461 41,495 98,064 

South Dakota - 184 442 3,437 3,500 6,011 7,614 21,188 

Tennessee 925 11,880 5,988 14,355 21,901 27,947 29,169 112,165 

Texas 4,545 42,491 34,823 40,533 56,108 65,770 89,657 333,927 

Utah 170 3,679 1,929 7,393 6,497 8,047 13,454 41,169 

Vermont 113 309 635 1,489 1,705 1,240 11,546 17,037 

Virginia 1,448 16,832 13,290 23,568 23,627 28,592 26,825 134,182 

Washington 1,138 8,185 5,627 13,320 10,587 12,251 27,216 78,324 

West Virginia - 605 700 2,991 4,774 5,191 10,727 24,988 

Wisconsin 307 3,242 5,098 11,166 11,023 14,210 31,343 76,389 

Wyoming 285 - 2,443 4,173 1,820 4,358 9,747 22,826 

National Total 75,760 526,336 372,523 584,145 618,848 773,875 1,550,920 4,502,407 

Source: Smith Travel Research, Inc. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 10 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 7 Top Ten States by Number of High End Hotels and by Largest Average Size 

for High End Hotels 

Most Luxury and 

Upper Upscale Hotels Hotels Largest Average Upper Upscale Hotels 

Avg. 

Rooms / 

Hotel 

California 246 Nevada 1,214 

Florida 162 Hawaii 728 

Texas 124 New York 515 

New York 73 Louisiana 515 

Illinois 73 District of Columbia 510 

Georgia 56 Illinois 449 

Virginia 55 Georgia 423 

Arizona 49 California 406 

Massachusetts 46 Alaska 404 

Colorado 45 Massachusetts 390 

Percent of U.S. 58.1% Average Rest of U.S. 338 

Table 8 shows the number of hotels by state and by number of rooms for hotels having 100 or 

more guest rooms. The table breaks down hotels by five size categories. As will be described later, 100­

room hotels were chosen as the minimum size category for a hotel to economically consider CHP. There 

are nearly 9,500 hotels in the U.S. with 100 rooms or more. There are 527 hotels with 500 rooms or 

more. In the largest size category, there are only 32 hotels in the U.S. with 2000 rooms or more. Most of 

these mega-resorts have casinos and three-fourths of these hotels are in Nevada. 

2.3 Casino Industry Focus 

The U.S. casino industry, which includes land-based commercial casinos, riverboat casinos, 

tribal-run casinos, racetrack casinos, and card rooms, generated approximately $45.9 billion in revenue 

in 2003, a 5.7% increase compared with 2002 revenues. In 2004, industry revenue is projected to grow 

5.1%, to reach $48.3 billion. 

There are 48 U.S. states (except Hawaii and Utah) that have some form of legal gambling. Casino 

gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931 and the state did not experience any competition until 1976 

when New Jersey legalized gambling. The rapid spread of casinos started in the late 1980s and early 

1990s when a number of states including Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut and Indiana, began 

legislative initiatives to allow commercial and/or tribal casinos to open. Between 1989 and 1998 nine 

states legalized casino gambling. In 2004, casino gambling (including commercial casinos, tribal casinos, 

racetrack casinos and card rooms) was legal in 34 states. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 11 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Table 8 Number of Hotels by State and by Number of Guest Rooms 

State 100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 

Number of Rooms 

2000+ Total 

Alabama 110 24 1 135 

Alaska 22 11 2 35 

Arizona 198 57 12 267 

Arkansas 46 18 64 

California 581 337 51 12 981 

Colorado 155 66 9 2 232 

Connecticut 87 21 1 2 111 

DC 32 35 8 2 77 

Delaware 18 6 24 

Florida 606 285 57 22 4 974 

Georgia 229 79 7 5 320 

Hawaii 9 43 21 5 1 79 

Idaho 31 5 1 37 

Illinois 220 115 16 5 1 357 

Indiana 102 33 5 140 

Iowa 64 17 81 

Kansas 58 14 72 

Kentucky 69 29 2 1 101 

Louisiana 122 54 9 4 189 

Maine 40 8 48 

Maryland 135 47 4 1 187 

Massachusetts 139 73 5 2 219 

Michigan 187 56 5 1 249 

Minnesota 103 53 6 162 

Mississippi 51 17 7 5 80 

Missouri 139 60 11 210 

Montana 26 7 1 34 

Nebraska 33 10 43 

Nevada 53 61 29 20 24 187 

New Hampshire 36 13 49 

New Jersey 153 63 9 5 1 231 

New Mexico 68 18 86 

New York 225 101 29 10 365 

North Carolina 232 40 4 1 277 

North Dakota 18 4 22 

Ohio 198 77 4 279 

Oklahoma 41 21 1 63 

Oregon 91 26 2 119 

Pennsylvania 230 76 8 1 315 

Rhode Island 17 12 29 

South Carolina 113 41 12 1 167 

South Dakota 19 7 26 

Tennessee 170 57 2 1 230 

Texas 411 209 20 6 646 

Utah 71 17 4 1 93 

Vermont 28 6 1 35 

Virginia 241 95 6 342 

Washington 131 39 4 174 

West Virginia 43 7 1 1 52 

Wisconsin 100 35 3 138 

Wyoming 22 9 31 

U.S. Total 6323 2614 379 116 32 9464 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 12 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Casinos and gaming overlap the hotel and lodging industry to the extent that there are nearly 300 

land-based casinos with associated lodging. The casino industry also includes land-based casinos 

without lodging, racetracks, riverboat and dockside casinos. The industry is further split into the 

commercial gaming industry with operations in 11 states and the Indian casino operations operating in 

28 states (Class III Tribal Casinos in 21 states.) Figure 2 shows the distribution of casino operations by 

state and type. 

Commercial gaming is permitted in 11 states. The two largest commercial gaming centers are in 

Nevada (Las Vegas, Reno) and New Jersey (Atlantic City.) The Midwest commercial gaming industry 

consists exclusively of riverboat and dockside casinos (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri) except for 3 

land based casinos in Michigan. The next biggest gaming center is in the South with casinos in Louisiana 

and Mississippi. The Southern commercial gaming market is primarily riverboat and dockside with one 

land-based casino in Louisiana. Colorado and South Dakota in the West both allow limited stakes 

gambling casinos. These facilities bring in much less revenue than the unrestricted casinos in the larger 

markets. Table 9 shows the breakdown of the commercial gaming industry by state. 

Figure 2 Geographical Distribution of Casino Gaming by Type 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 13 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 9 Commercial Gaming Facilities and Revenues by State 

State 

Employee 

Wages 

$millions 

Gross 

Revenue 

$millions 

Tax 

Revenue 

$millions 

Year of 

first 

Operatio 

n 

Type of Casino 

Land RaceTrack 

River 

-boat 

Nevada $6,954 $9,625 $777 1931 256 

New Jersey $1,239 $4,490 $415 1978 12 

Mississippi $1,028 $2,700 $325 1992 29 

Indiana $590 $2,229 $703 1995 10 

Louisiana $453 $2,017 $449 1993 1 3 14 

Illinois $377 $1,709 $720 1991 9 

Missouri $310 $1,330 $369 1994 11 

Michigan $368 $1,130 $250 1999 3 

Iowa $279 $1,024 $210 1991 3 10 

Colorado $207 $609 $96 1991 44 

South 

Dakota $35 $70 $11 1989 38 

Total $11,839 $26,934 $4,323 354 6 83 

Since 1988, when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed, 224 of the 562 recognized 

Indian nations have pursued development of Class II or Class III casinos. The Indian gaming industry 

has grown from $212 million in 1988 to over $14 billion in 2004. Table 10 shows the number of Indian 

casinos with associated lodging by state. There are a total of 97 Indian casino hotels. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 14 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 10 Indian Casinos with Associated Hotels, Resorts, or Lodges 

Northeast 

Connecticut 2 

New York 1 

Midwest 

Iowa 1 

Kansas 0 

Michigan 9 

Minnesota 14 

Nebraska 1 

North Dakota 5 

Oklahoma 3 

South Dakota 5 

Wisconsin 8 

Northeast Total 3 

Midwest Total 46 

South 

Alabama 1 

Florida 1 

Louisiana 2 

Mississippi 1 

North Carolina 1 

South Carolina 0 

Texas 0 

West 

Arizona 7 

California 10 

Colorado 1 

Idaho 1 

Montana 2 

Nevada 1 

New Mexico 7 

Oregon 9 

Washington 4 

Wyoming 0 

South Total 6 

West Total 42 

For purposes of evaluating the applicability of CHP, the unrestricted land-based casinos, both 

commercial and tribal, represent the best target. However, the riverboat and dockside casino activities 

have evolved such that there are no cruising requirements in the six states. “Riverboat” casinos in these 

states (except for Iowa that only lifted cruising requirements in 2004) are in permanently moored barges. 

Such facilities could receive electric and thermal energy services in the same way as permanent 

buildings, and therefore it is conceivable that CHP could be applied. 

2.4 Industry Trends 

The hotel industry is finally breaking out of the disastrous recession that followed the 9/11 

terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the three years following 9/11 the hotel 

industry had a 36.2 decline in profits. In 2004, this declining trend has turned around with a 7.6% 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 15 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

increase in revenues and an 11.4 % increase in profits compared with 2003.5 Resort hotels achieved the 

greatest increase in profitability in 2004 with operating profits growing by 17.2%. Limited service hotels 

gained the least with profits up only 6.2%. Full service, suite, and convention hotels all saw profits rise 

by over 10%. 

The number of occupied rooms grew by only 4.3% so the much higher increase in profitability is 

due to increased usage of other hotel amenities such as restaurants, lounges, retail shops, and recreational 

facilities. Energy costs have fluctuated up in 2001, down in 2002, and up again the last two years. The 

rising oil prices in 2005 are creating concern within the industry for not only increased operating costs, 

but decreased travel as well. 

Increased competition among establishments in this industry has spurred many independently 

owned and operated hotels and other lodging places to join national or international reservation systems, 

which allow travelers to make multiple reservations for lodging, airlines, and car rentals with one 

telephone call. Nearly all hotel chains operate online reservation systems through the Internet. There is a 

shift in the demand by type of traveler and by type of facility. 

Younger travelers (generation X) are eclipsing baby-boomers as the number one travel segment. 

Leisure travel hotel stays, historically subordinate to business travelers’ needs, has now equaled 

business travel stays and should become the number one reason for hotel stays in the U.S. 

Luxury hotels (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Fairmont) represent the fastest growing market 

segment. The worst performing segment is the economy segment (Motel 6, Red Roof, Days). Limited 

service hotels (Hampton Inn, Country Inns & Suites, HI Express) are gaining at the expense of full 

service mid-level chains (Holiday Inn, Ramada, Best Western). Figure 3 shows the change in rooms 

supplied and demanded for five categories of hotel properties. 

5 Trends in the Hotel Industry, PKF Hospitality Research, 2005. (cited statistics from PKF press release.) 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 16 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supply and Demand Changes by Sector 

Luxury 

Upper Upscale 

Upscale 

Mid w F&B 

Mid wo F&B 

Economy -1.1 

3.6 

-1.8 

1.2 

1.4 

2.6 

1.4 

8.1 

2.2 

6.6 

6.1 

10.7 

-4 0 4 8 12 

Demand 

Supply 

% Change YTD 2004 (3/04) vs. 2003 

Figure 3 Change in Room Supply and Demand by Market Sector6 

About 70% of all motel and hotel rooms are associated with franchises and national chains. Table 

11 shows the largest 15 hotel corporations by number of available rooms in the U.S7

. These large 

corporations can provide centralized decision making for CHP project development. The top national 

chains account for the majority of the development through new construction or “reflagging” of existing 

facilities that are acquired. Table 12 shows the growth in progress for the five top chains in the U.S. 

New construction represents the best opportunity for making a CHP decision. Reflagging also represents 

an opportunity for facility upgrades during remodeling. 

6

 Mark V. Lommano, “U.S. Lodging Industry Overview,” AH&LA 2004 Travel Industry Summit, Smith Travel Research, 

May 14, 2004. 

7

 In recent years, hotels, motels, camps, and recreational and RV parks affiliated with national chains have been 

growing rapidly. To the traveler, familiar chain establishments represent dependability and quality at predictable rates. 

National corporations own many chains, although several others are independently owned but affiliated with a chain 

through a franchise agreement.
 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 17 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Table 11 Top 15 National Chains by Number of Available Rooms in the U.S. 

Top 15 Domestic Hotel Chains by 

Number of Rooms Rooms Hotels 

Domestic 

Rooms Hotels 

International Brands 

[2] Cendant Corporation 439,279 5,622 64,581 839 

Amerihost Inn, Days Inn, Days Serviced Apartments, 

Howard Johnson, Howard Johnson Express, Knights 

Inn, Ramada, Ramada Limited, Super 8, Thriftlodge, 

Travelodge & Wingate Inn 

[3] Marriott International, Inc. 380,218 2,236 120,970 563 

Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn by Marriott, Marriott 

Conference Centers, Marriott Executive Apartments, 

Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Ramada Int'l Plaza, 

Ramada International Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance 

Hotels & Resorts, & Residence Inn 

[5] Hilton Hotels Corporation 357,332 2,184 17,218 75 

Conrad, Doubletree, Doubletree Club, Embassy Suites, 

Embassy Vacation Resort, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & 

Suites, Hilton, Hilton Gaming, Hilton Garden Inn, & 

Homewood Suites 

[1] Inter-Continental Hotel Group 337,643 2,523 214,295 1,133 

Candlewood, Centra, Crowne Plaza, Forum Hotel, 

Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Garden 

Court, Holiday Inn Select, Inter Continental, Parkroyal, 

Posthouse, Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, & 

Sunspree Resorts 

[4] Choice Hotels International, Inc. 313,982 3,891 78,615 878 

Clarion, Comfort Inn, Hotel & Suites, Econo Lodge, 

MainStay Suites, Quality Inn, Hotel & Suites, Rodeway 

Inn, & Sleep Inn 

[6] Best Western International 186,422 2,181 116,924 1,783 Best Western 

[10] Accor North America 134,803 1,252 4,167 26 Coralia, Hotel Novotel, Hotel Sofitel, Mercure Hotel, 

Motel 6, Red Roof Inn, & Studio 6 

[7] Starwood Hotels & Resorts 

Worldwide, Inc. 123,747 355 103,543 377 Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, Sheraton, St. 

Regis/Luxury Collection, W Hotels, & Westin 

[9] Carlson Hospitality Worldwide 82,739 566 70,703 379 Country Inns & Suites by Carlson, Park Inns & Suites, 

Park Plaza Suites, Radisson, & Regent Hotels 

[12] HVM, L.L.C. 72,961 654 0 0 

Extended StayAmerica Efficiency Studios®, Homestead 

Studio Suites Hotels®, StudioPLUS Deluxe Studios® 

and Crossland Economy Studios® properties. 

[14] La Quinta Corporation 65,384 592 50 1 Baymont Inn & Suites, La Quinta Inns, La Quinta Inn & 

Suites, Woodfield Suites and Budgetel. 

[13] Interstate Hotel & Resorts 64,909 288 573 3 Hotel Operator 

[15] Hyatt Hotels Corporation 57,085 115 4,500 12 Hyatt®, Hyatt Regency®, Grand Hyatt® and Park 

Hyatt® brands, just added Amerisuites 

[16] Host Marriott 51,721 101 1,641 4 Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont, Hyatt Regency, 

Westfields, Westin, Swissotel, Four Seasons 

[17] FelCor Lodging Trust, 

Incorporated 40,137 148 814 2 

REIT. FelCor maintains a strong relationship with 

InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG), Hilton 

Hotels Corporation (NYSE: HLT) and Starwood Hotels & 

Resorts (NYSE: HOT). 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 18 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Table 12 National Chains Share of Industry Growth8 

Leading Chains 

Rooms U

New 

Construc 

t 

nder Development 

Reflag 

s 

Total 

2004 

Growt 

h Rate 

% 

Marriott 

Hilton 

InterContinental 

Cendant 

Choice 

41,905 

37,755 

26,235 

24,695 

9,896 

6,204 

2,679 

4,450 

7,209 

4,110 

48,109 

40,434 

30,685 

31,904 

14,006 

4.1 

4.4 

3.8 

2.1 

3.0 

Total Leading Cos. 140,486 24,652 165,13 

8 

3.4 

% of Industry 54.70% 69.90% 56.50% 

Consistent with the strength of the luxury market sector, one of the top trends in the casino/resort 

segment of the lodging industry is known as entertainment convergence. Destination casinos and resorts 

seek to broaden the appeal of their facilities, i.e., attract more people, and to provide a variety of 

attractions so that guests will lengthen their stay. Figure 4 shows the components that are going into the 

development of a modern casino/resort property. The addition of these multiple uses and components 

makes facilities much larger than they used to be and creates a correspondingly larger but also more 

diverse energy load that can be met by CHP. 

Source: Economics Research Associates9 

Figure 4 Casino/Resort Use and Services Model 

8

 Patrick Ford, “New Construction, Top Markets, Leading Companies, Real Estate Transactions,” AH&LA 2004 Travel 

Industry Summit, Lodging Econometrics, May 14, 2004. 9

 Mark E. Dvorchak, From Casino to Resort: Understanding the Entertainment Heirarchy, ERA White Paper, July
 

2002.
 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 19 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
In this expanded use model, hotel and entertainment companies are seeing the most revenue 

opportunities from the expansion of retail facilities, resort residential development, theme parks, and 

spas. An example of this model for new resort facilities is the Atlantic City’s Marina District, Borgata 

Hotel Casino and Spa. The Borgata is the first new casino/hotel/shopping destination built in Atlantic 

City in more than a decade. This facility features more than 2,000 guest rooms, 135,000 square feet of 

gaming, 11 restaurants, 4 bars, a 35,000 sq ft spa, 8 retail stores, 30,000 sq ft event center for concerts 

and conference exhibitions that is part of a total of 70,000 sq ft of conference space, a 1,000 seat theater, 

and other entertainment facilities. The facility is served by a state-of-the-art district heating and cooling 

plant with 8 MW of backup power. Having centralized heating and cooling makes it easier to add CHP at 

a later date. 

3. EXISTING CHP IN HOTELS/CASINOS 

There are currently 98 hotels in the U.S. with CHP systems, representing over 63 MW of 

capacity. California contains the most CHP equipped hotels in the country by a large margin with New 

Jersey and New York coming in second and third. This distribution of CHP hotels throughout the U.S. 

follows very closely with the proportion of total CHP installations by state. Table 13 shows the number 

of CHP hotels that are located in each state. 

Table 13 State Distribution of Hotels with CHP Systems 

State # Sites Capacity (kW) 

AK 2 5,950 

AZ 1 1,650 

CA 57 27,003 

CT 2 550 

FL 1 125 

HI 3 1,550 

IN 1 90 

MA 5 560 

MI 1 125 

MO 1 150 

ND 1 30 

NE 1 82 

NJ 8 1,710 

NM 1 28 

NV 1 4,900 

NY 6 7,935 

OH 1 100 

TN 1 5,200 

TX 2 355 

UT 1 1,950 

WV 1 3,150 

Total 98 63,193 

Of the existing CHP systems in the hotel/casino sector, the majority are reciprocating engine 

systems. Many of these systems were put in during the late 1980s. Table 14 shows the distribution of 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 20 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
systems by prime mover and Figure 5 shows the start year for each system. In recent years the industry 

has installed a number of microturbine and fuel cell systems, with a particularly busy installation year in 

2003. 

Table 14 Hotel CHP Systems by Prime Mover 

Prime Mover # Sites Capacity (kW) 

Combustion Turbine 

Reciprocating Engine 

Fuel Cell 

Microturbine 

4 

78 

5 

11 

12,450 

48,255 

1,350 

1,138 

Total 98 63,193 

CHP Hotel Installations by Year 

0 

2 

4 

6 

8 

10 

12 

14 

16 

1984198519861987198819891990199119921994199519961997199920002001200220032004Unk 

Start year 

Number of Installations 

Microturbine 

Fuel Cell 

Reciprocating 

Engine 

Combustion 

Turbine 

Figure 5 Hotel CHP System Installations by Start Year and Prime Mover 

Due to the load profiles of hotels the majority of CHP systems that are installed are under 500 

kW. Figure 6 shows this size dispersion with an equal amount of systems falling in the 0 to 100 kW 

category and the 100 to 500 kW category. The systems in the larger categories are mainly located at 

resort hotels with larger campuses that require more power. There are three hotel casino resorts with 

CHP systems, two of which are in the largest two categories with capacities of 4.9 MW and 5.2 MW. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 21 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Size Range # Sites 

0-100 kW 40 

100-500 kW 39 

500-1000 kW 5 

1-5 MW 10 

>5 MW 4 

Hotel CHP Systems by Size Range 

100-500 

kW 1-5 MW 

>5 MW

 0-100 kW 

500-1000 

kW 

Figure 6 CHP Systems in the Lodging Industry by Size 

Examples of CHP systems in hotels are described in the following sections. 

Mohegan Sun Casino and Hotel 

The Mohegan Sun Casino and Hotel is a unique casino destination in southeastern Connecticut 

that is owned by the Mohegan Tribal Nation. The hotel has almost 1,200 guest rooms and includes a spa, 

business center, and several fine and casual dining restaurants. 

In 2001 International Fuel Cells sold two PC25TM fuel cells to the Mohegan Tribal Nation for 

the hotel casino. The units each produce 200 kilowatts of electricity and 900,000 BTUs of heat, 

providing reliable energy for the Mohegan Sun. The heat is used to meet space heating as well as 

domestic hot water needs. 

The purchase of the fuel cells is part of a larger effort by the tribe to make the hotel casino as 

environmentally friendly as possible. "The environment has always been a traditional Mohegan priority. 

We are pleased to be able to implement this environmentally sound system at Mohegan Sun," said Jayne 

Fawcett, Tribal Ambassador. The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency 

Combined Heat and Power Partnership recognized the Mohegan Sun project’s pollution reduction and 

energy efficiency with a 2005 CHP Certificate of Recognition. 

The tribe also intends to run a public awareness program by inviting outside groups including 

school classes to view the fuel cells and learn about how they operate with significantly reduced 

emissions. Real-time operating data from the fuel cells will also be available for visitors to view. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 22 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Harrah’s Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino 

The Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino is a high-end casino resort located in Las Vegas less than a 

mile from the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel offers 2,800 suites, shows and lounges, nonstop gaming, as 

well as many luxuries associated with top resorts. The Rio also contains five fine dining restaurants with 

another ten casual dining restaurants. 

The Rio was installed a CHP system, the first system at a Las Vegas casino, in order to reduce its 

$9 million annual energy bill. This was accomplished by installing six Caterpillar 3516 natural gas gensets that produce 4.9 MW of electricity for the hotels needs. The system started operation on May 1, 

2004 and generates 40 percent of the electricity, 60 percent of the hot water, and 65 percent of the 

heating requirements of the resort. Through generating power and thermal energy more efficiently than 

the hotel can purchase from the local utility, the Rio has an annual energy savings of $1.5 million. The 

system will pay for itself in just over four and a half years. 

The CHP system operates around 75 percent overall efficiency and uses 34 percent less fuel than 

on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity. The Department of Energy and the Environmental 

Protection Agency Combined Heat and Power Partnership recognized the Rio project’s pollution 

reduction and energy efficiency with a 2003 CHP Certificate of Recognition. 

Radisson Santa Maria 

The Radisson Hotel of Santa Maria is a 185 room hotel located adjacent to the Santa Maria 

Airport. The hotel has conference and meeting rooms, a spa, exercise area with pool, and an 80-seat 

gourmet restaurant/lounge. The hotel has served the Santa Maria and Vandenberg communities with 

lodging, dining, and business services for almost 30 years but was driven to look into CHP because of 

high energy and operating costs. 

The hotel installed two Capstone microturbine C60-ICHP systems to reduce the hotel’s cost of 

electricity, hot water, and space heating. The microturbines each produce 60 kW of electrical energy and 

115 kW of thermal energy. The system was installed in parallel to the utility connection and runs 

continuously to offset the hotel’s average demand of 160 kW. Almost 800,000 Btu/hr of heat is obtained 

from the heat recovery units and is used to heat water in the domestic, laundry, and kitchen water loops 

with excess heat being utilized for space heating. During the winter months the microturbines provide 

for a majority of the hotel’s hot water needs, which are supplemented by the existing boilers, however 

the system provides all the hot water during the summer months. 

The system installation went very smoothly at the Radisson Santa Maria. The system is located in 

an easily viewable area adjacent to the mechanical room and is connected to a 200-amp electrical subpanel and extended gas service. Since the Capstone systems are precertified to the California Air 

Resources Board 2003 DG emissions standards and also to California’s statewide Rule 21 

interconnection requirements, the installation and startup were quick and easy, and had no impact on 

hotel operations. 

4. ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND LOAD PROFILES 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 23 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Resort Hotels 

Convention Hotels 

Full-Service Hotels 

All-Suite Hotels 

Extended Stay 

Limited Service Hotels 

All Hotels 

This section provides some general energy consumption figures and then explores specific energy 

use load profiles for specific hotel types that have enough thermal and electric load to support an 

economically sized CHP system. These electric and thermal load relationships are used in the technical 

and economic screening of CHP potential in Section 5. 

4.1 Energy Consumption Trends 

The energy consumption characteristics of the lodging industry have a direct bearing on the 

applicability of CHP and the total technical market potential. . This section provides some overall energy 

use indicators. 

Figure 7 shows annual energy costs per available room by type of hotel property.10 Resort hotels 

pay the most per available room for energy -- $2,080 in 2003. Convention hotels are the next most 

energy intensive followed by full-service and all-suite hotels. Per available room energy costs for 

extended stay and limited service hotels are much less than resort hotels at $611 and $573 respectively. 

About three fourths of energy costs are for electricity and one fourth for fuel. 

2003 Energy Costs

 per Available Room (PAR) 

$2,500 

Fuel 

$2,000 Electric 

$1,500 

$1,000 

$500 

$0 

$ PAR
 

Figure 7 2003 Energy Consumption Expenditures per Available Room by Type of Hotel 

For the industry as a whole, energy costs (2003) were $1,254 per available room. Based on the 

4.4 million available rooms for the industry, the total energy bill is $5.2 billion or about 5% of total 

industry revenues. 

10 Robert Mendelbaum, “Hotel Utility Costs Surge Protection is Needed,” Hotel Online Special Report, PKF Hospitality 

Research March 2004. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 24 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Resort Hotels 

Convention Hotels 

Fu ll-Service Hotels 

All-Suite Hotels 

Extended Stay 

Limited Service Hotels 

All Hotels 

The energy costs reported by PKF Hospitality Research were divided by the average large 

commercial energy costs for 2003 reported by EIA. The resulting estimates of energy consumption per 

available room are shown in Figure 8. In terms of energy consumed, electricity and fuel consumption is 

roughly equal overall. Based on the total industry figures, the total energy consumption for the industry 

in 2003 was an estimated 394 trillion Btu/year. (When using a more inclusive EIA definition of the 

industry with dormitories and nursing homes included the estimate rises to 450 trillion/Btu per year.) 

Estimated 2003 Energy Consumption

 per Available Room (PAR) 

160 

Fuel 140
 Electric 120
 

100
 

80
 

60
 

40
 

20
 

0
 

Million/Btu PAR

Figure 8 2003 Estimated Energy Consumption per Available Room by Type of Hotel 

Using the per room estimates shown above, the annual energy costs of different types of hotels 

can be compared. A 2,000 room resort hotel would have a typical annual energy bill of over $4 million 

and might have a peak electric demand of 7 to 10 MW. A typical 100 room limited service hotel would 

have an annual energy budget of $57,000 with a corresponding peak demand of 100 to 150 kW. These 

examples show the importance of segmenting the lodging market when evaluating the market potential 

for CHP. 

The ability of lodging facilities to utilize CHP depends not only on the amount of energy utilized 

but the ways in which the energy is utilized. Figure 9, based on the EIA CBECS data for the lodging 

sector, shows the breakdown of electric and gas consumption by end-use for the industry as a whole. 

Space heating and water heating are the two largest consumers of energy; both of these end-uses 

predominantly use natural gas. Air conditioning is the next biggest end-use followed by lighting. 

Together these four end uses account for three quarters of the total energy needs for the industry. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 25 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Space Heating 

Water Heating 

Air Conditioning 

Lighting

Other

Cooking 

Office Equipment 

Ventilation 

Refrigeration 

Lodging Industry Energy Use by Type 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Gas 

Electric 

Trillion Btu/Year

Figure 9 1999 Energy Consumption by End-Use for the Lodging Industry (EIA Data) 

4.2 Energy Consumption Analysis for EPA Energy Star Hotel Participants 

The EPA Energy Star Program has had energy usage data submitted by 1222 hotels11. These data 

were analyzed for this study to provide insight on electric and natural gas utilization by hotels. 

Of the 1200 hotels analyzed, the breakdown by chain scale and by size class of the hotel is shown 

in Table 15. About two-thirds of the hotels participating in the Energy Star program are in the Upscale 

and higher chains. There are 146 hotels with more than 500 rooms representing 30% of the total market 

as reported by the AH&LA. 

Hotel size as a function of the number of rooms varies by chain scale. Using a linear trend line 

analysis, the average total square footage per hotel room is given for each type of hotel. As hotels 

increase in services and price level, the total average square footage per room increases from 535 s.f. for 

an economy hotel to 905 s.f. for an upper upscale hotel as shown in Table 16. 

11 Twenty-two hotels were eliminated from the analysis for a variety of reasons: no information on number of rooms, 

no floor space given, located in a U.S. territory, one duplicate, and cases where the square footage given for the hotel 

was too small for the number of rooms. A total of 1200 hotels were analyzed from the EPA database. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 26 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Table 15 Breakdown of EPA Energy Star Hotel Database by Size Class and Chain Scale 

Size Class (Number of Rooms) 

Hotel Type <75 75-149 150-299 300-500 >500 Total 

Hotel (Economy and Budget) 

Hotel (Midscale w/o Food and Beverage) 

Hotel (Midscale w/Food and Beverage) 

Hotel (Upscale) 

Hotel (Upper Upscale) 

18 

6 

3 

3 

3 

7 2 

50 8 

186 73 13 4 

238 165 54 24 

7 82 136 118 

27 

64 

279 

484 

346 

Grand Total 33 488 330 203 146 1200 

Table 16 Average Hotel Size per Room in Square Feet 

Hotel Chain Scale Total s.f./ 

# rooms 

Economy and Budget 

Midscale w/o Food and Beverage 

Midscale w/ Food and Beverage 

Upscale 

Upper Upscale 

535 

549 

656 

842 

905 

The EPA data were identified by state using the zip codes provided. These states were split into 

three rough climate categories, hot, moderate, and cold, in order to evaluate the changes in electric and 

gas energy usage intensities (EUI). Table 17 shows the results by chain scale for the hotels that recorded 

usage of both electricity and gas. There is a general trend of increasing energy intensity in all climates as 

the price and service classification increases. This trend is strongest in looking at the EUIs in the 

economy and limited service midscale hotel categories compared to full service hotels. The highest EUIs 

occur in the highest scale hotels. The impacts of climate on gas heating and electric air conditioning can 

be seen to some extent. The relationship is stronger for gas EUI which increases in most cases as the 

climate becomes colder. Climate impact on electric consumption is more difficult to see; in only three of 

the five hotel types are there higher electric EUIs in the hot climate compared to the cold climate. 

In order to control the impact that size of the hotel has on energy consumption, and to focus in on 

the target market for CHP applications, the same analysis was undertaken for hotels in the 300-500 room 

class. There are no economy or limited service hotels in this size range in the EPA database. Figures 10 

and 11 show the changes in electric and gas EUI respectively. The electric consumption shows a slight 

trend toward greater electric EUI in hot climates. Midscale hotels show the highest EUIs, but there are 

only 11 represented in this size class compared to 41 upscale and 123 upper upscale hotels. Gas 

consumption shows the effects of reduced space heating requirements in midscale and upper upscale 

hotels but not in upscale hotels. 

The database does provide a strong indication of the level of energy usage in large hotels and 

provides a starting point for CHP sizing. 

Table 17 Gas and Electric Energy Usage Intensities by Climate and Chain Scale 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 27 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Climate Grand 

Hotel Type Data Cold Hot Moderate Total 

Hotel (Economy and Budget) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

9 

12.07 

31.64 

3 6 

8.94 8.35 

19.25 69.66 

18 

10.31 

42.25 

Hotel (Midscale w/o Food and Beverage) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

16 

11.66 

36.13 

12 15 

15.01 11.97 

33.36 47.81 

43 

12.70 

39.43 

Hotel (Midscale w/Food and Beverage) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

127 

18.02 

70.67 

55 83 

15.62 15.00 

24.49 48.18 

265 

16.57 

54.04 

Hotel (Upscale) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

92 

16.21 

52.44 

145 210 

16.65 13.24 

35.67 38.76 

447 

14.96 

40.57 

Hotel (Upper Upscale) # of Hotels 

Avg. Elec kWh/sf/yr 

Avg. Gas KBtu/sf 

94 

17.56 

54.64 

94 121 

20.26 16.83 

42.78 49.47 

309 

18.10 

49.01 

Total Number of Hotels 338 309 435 1082 

Total Average of Elec kWh/sf/yr 16.94 17.43 14.46 16.08 

Total Average of Gas KBtu/sf 58.58 35.59 44.27 46.26 

Electric Use 300-500 Room Hotels by
 

Climate
 

0 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

kWh/year/s.f.

Midscale w/F &B 

Upscale 

Upper Upscale 

Cold Moderate Hot 

Climate Type 

Figure 10 Electric EUI for 400-500 Room Hotels by Climate 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 28 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Gas Use 300-500 Room Hotels by Climate 

70 

60 

50 

Midscale w/F &B 40 

Upscale 

30 Upper Upscale 

20 

10 

0 

kBtuyear//s.f.

Cold Moderate Hot 

Climate Type 

Figure 11 Gas EUI for 400-500 Room Hotels by Climate 

The thermal to electric ratio for each of these hotels ranges from 0.9 to 2.6 with a class weighted 

average of 1.25. This means that for every kWh of electricity consumed, 2700 Btu of natural gas is 

consumed. Reciprocating engine and microturbines produce up to twice this amount of recoverable 

waste heat, so size matching for CHP will need take into account the thermal requirements at the site. 

Thermal requirements can be increased, however, by converting all or a portion of the air conditioning 

load to a thermally activated technology. 

4.3 Hotel Load Analysis and Examples 

Small and limited service hotels and motels do not have the load needed to support an 

economically sized CHP system. A 40-unit two story motel in Atlantic City, New Jersey might have a 

peak summer electric load of 65 kW, however, the minimum nighttime electric loads are less than 10 kW 

and thermal loads are limited. Economics depends not only on the characteristics of the hotel but also on 

the cost and performance of the CHP equipment itself. While there is a lot of development work 

underway on small electric generators, these systems are currently too costly for all but specific niche 

applications. 

For this study, an economic cut-off for CHP systems was set at full service hotels with 100 rooms 

or more. 

4.3.1 Large Full Service Hotel 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 29 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
A CHP system developer, PowerHouse Energy, Inc. (PHE), provided energy consumption for a 

full service hotel that was retrofitted with CHP.12 PHE has installed a number of CHP systems in hotels 

in California. The hotel is an Embassy Suites in Brea, California located in North Orange County. The 

hotel has 228 guest rooms, a 400-seat restaurant, meeting rooms, a laundry, and an outdoor swimming 

pool and spa. 

During the site evaluation, PHE did instrumented electric and load consumption monitoring for a 

number of days to determine the appropriate sizing and operating strategy for the CHP system. The 

primary focus of this monitoring was to determine the minimum nighttime electric loads and the 

coincident thermal loads. PHE wanted to size the system for continuous base-load operation with a high 

degree of thermal utilization. 

Figure 12 shows a portion of the results of monitoring the hotel electric use for a period of 

almost two weeks during the summer of 2002. The minimum nighttime electric load was 304 kW and the 

maximum peak electric use occurred at 10:00pm, July 17th, (not shown) of 540 kW. The minimum 

electric loads during the winter months are 5-10% lower. 

One W Quarter Power Consumption - Chart 1 126,000 

125,000 

124,000 

123,000 

122,000 504 kW 121,000 

120,000 

119,000 Peak 118,000 

117,000 

116,000 

115,000 

114,000 

113,000 

112,000 

111,000 

110,000 

109,000 

108,000 

107,000 

106,000 

105,000 

104,000 

103,000 

102,000 

101,000 

100,000 

99,000 

98,000 

97,000 

96,000 

95,000 

94,000 

93,000 

92,000 

91,000 

90,000 

89,000 

88,000 

87,000 

86,000 

85,000 

84,000 

83,000 

82,000 

81,000 304 kW 80,000 

79,000 

78,000 

77,000 Min 76,000 

002 12:00:00 AM 7/29/2002 12:00:00 PM 7/30/2002 12:00:00 AM 7/30/2002 12:00:00 PM 7/31/2002 12:00:00 AM 7/31/2002 12:00:00 PM 8/1/2002 12:00:00 AM 8/1/2002 12:00:00 PM

M 7/29 T 7/30 W 7/31 Th 8/01 

Figure 12 Electric Load Monitoring for Brea Embassy Suites prior to Installation of CHP 

System 

The key to designing an economically viable CHP system is to design a system with high thermal 

utilization. PHE evaluated the thermal loads for the building. The addressable thermal loads were hot 

water for the guest rooms, space heating, kitchen hot water, the laundry water heater, and the pool and 

spa heater. Physical location of the facilities in an existing hotel is as important as the size and timing of 

the loads. 

12 David Moard, President, Powerhouse Energy, Inc., personal communication. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 30 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

PHE monitored the thermal consumption of the domestic hot water for guest use. The existing 

pair of 1.2 MMBtu/hr boilers operated for 8-12 hours per day providing about 1.0 MMBtu/hr of useful 

heat energy to the hot water. The average energy required by the guests for hot water was 9.72 

MMBtu/day (averaging 0.34mmBtu/hr). 

PHE installed Capstone microturbines in parallel with the hotel’s existing electrical utility 

connection. The microturbines are run continuously to provide approximately 115 kWh of electrical 

power to offset the hotel’s average 300 kWh electrical demand. Approximately 750,000 Btu/hr thermal 

heat output of the microturbines is recovered and circulated through a Unifin heat recovery unit and 

supplied to the domestic hot water storage tanks to offset the guest rooms, laundry and kitchen thermal 

requirements. The captured thermal heat, using a 40o

F temperature rise in the water that is pumped at 80 

gpm through the heat recovery unit of the turbines and into the domestic hot water storage tank, reduces 

the operational run time of the hotel’s two existing 1.2 million Btu/hr water heating boilers. The boilers 

remained in a reserve or backup capacity to the CHP system, running only a couple hours per day in the 

winter months. The CHP system provides virtually all the domestic water heating needs during the 

summer months. 

The outdoor pool heating is integrated into the CHP system by a thermal heat exchanger, tying 

the domestic and pool hot water heating loops. The excess thermal heat, not utilized by the day or 

nighttime domestic demand of the hotel, is diverted to preheat the pool hot water loop. This ensures 

maximum usage of thermal energy available from the system; in this case about 90% of the thermal heat 

generated by the microturbines is used 100% of the time. 

Based on a number of applications provided by PHE and supplementary analysis, a thermal load 

analysis by end-use is provided in Table 18 for a hotel that is based on the requirements of a hotel the 

size of the Brea Embassy Suites – 230 guest rooms and estimated to be about 195,000 square feet. 

Figure 13 shows a graphic representation of loads compared to alternative CHP sizing. Water heating 

loads are the most important for CHP size matching. These loads are steady throughout the year but have 

two large peaks during the day and drop down to maintenance loads only during the middle of the night. 

Space heating loads can fill in the nighttime thermal use, but only in the wintertime. Kitchen loads peak 

with each meal. Laundries typically run a single shift starting early in the morning and stopping in early 

afternoon. Pool heating loads can be shifted to nighttime thereby creating higher utilization of the CHP 

system at night. The key for a developer such as PHE is that each hot water application that is added to 

the system requires another heat exchanger loop and associated piping at a cost of about $7,000 per 

added heat exchanger. This fact limits the attractiveness of linking up several different loads within the 

hotel. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 31 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Table 18 Thermal Energy Requirements for 228-Room Full Service Hotel 

Thermal Load 

Boiler 

Capacity 

kBtu/hr 

Averag 

e Use 

kBtu/hr 

Annual 

Use 

MMBtu 

Typical 

Schedule 

Guest Hot Water 

Laundry/Kitchen 

Pool 

Spa 

Space Heating 

Cooking 

1,200 

750 

300 

300 

2,000 

Nonboiler 

340 

90 

50 

90 

Variable 

230 

2,978 

788 

438 

788 

2,015 

Peak morning 

and evening 

Daytime/meal 

prep. 

Can be shifted 

to night-time 

Steady 

Climate driven, 

highest at night 

Meal prep. 

Total Thermal 800 7,008 plus space 

heating 

CHP 

Addressable 570 4,993 plus some 

space heating 

Typical Thermal Loads 230 Room
 

KBtu/hour 

Hotel
 

1,800 

1,600 

1,400 

1,200 

1,000 

800 

600 

400 

200 

0 

240 kW Thermal Output 

140 kW Thermal Output 

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 

Hours 

Space H 

Spa 

Pool 

Kitchen 

Laundry 

DHW 

CHP Sized 

to Min Elec. 

Load 

CHP Sized 

to thermal 

load 

Figure 13 Thermal Load Breakdown for Typical 230 Room Hotel 

Typical hotel characteristics for a 195,000 s.f., 230 room full-service hotel were developed, based 

in part on partial data provided for the Brea Embassy Suites. These characteristics were put into an 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 32 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

energy load model.13 The modeling allowed the hotel to be “moved” around the country to determine the 

impact of climate on energy loads. Orange County is a comparatively mild climate. Energy consumption 

in Las Vegas and in Minneapolis was modeled to identify the energy consumption in hot and cold 

climates respectively. This comparison is shown in Table 19. 

Table 19 Energy Consumption Breakdown by Climate for a 195,000 s.f. Full Service Hotel 

Location 

Climate Type 

Units Anaheim 

Mild 

Las Vegas 

Hot 

Minneapoli 

s 

Cold 

Thousand 

Annual Electric Use kWh 

Million 

3,131 3,548 2,960 

Annual Gas Use Btu 

Million 

7,836 8,780 19,660 

Base Gas Demand Btu 5,038 4,710 6,240 

Electric EUII kWh/s.f. 16.06 18.19 15.18 

Gas EUI kBtu/s.f. 40.18 45.03 100.82 

Peak Demand kW 745 840 832 

Average Demand kW 357 405 338 

Minimum Demand kW 250 260 240 

Peak Load/Avg. Load % of Avg 208% 207% 246% 

Min Load/Avg. Load % of Avg 70% 64% 71% 

CHP Sizing Strategies 

100% Electric/80% Thermal Use (kW) 

Max Size for 100% Electric Use (kW) 

144 

250 

134 

260 

178 

240 

Energy consumption can be characterized as follows: 

 Electric consumption ranges from 3 to 3.5 million kWh per year – hot climate cooling 

loads push total consumption up by 16% compared to mild and cold climate usage 

 Annual gas demand in the cold climate application is more than twice that of the hot and 

mild climate applications. 

 The CHP addressable thermal loads are the various water heating loads that are fairly 

constant throughout the year. These loads are fairly similar in the various climate 

applications varying only as a function of colder groundwater temperature in the cold 

climate application. In a warm climate application, 64% of the annual gas consumption 

represents the primary target for replacement with CHP supplied thermal energy. 

 Minimum electric loads are similar for the applications across climate types of 240-260 

kW. Minimum electric loads are important to CHP sizing and operating strategy because 

a system sized at or below this point can be run at full load continuously thereby 

maximizing the utilization of the equipment and minimizing operating complexity. 

 Sizing a CHP system to the addressable thermal load results in a system sized below the 

minimum electric demand. Sizes range from 134-178 kW. 

13 The Model used was EQuest 3.5 an energy simulation model for commercial buildings. EQuest was funded under 

the California Public Interest Energy Research Program and is publicly available. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 33 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 A CHP system sized at the minimum electric load would be able to meet an air 

conditioning load that was converted to absorption cooling or some other thermally 

activated technology and also space heating loads. 

The energy and sizing relationships shown in the table were used in the market screening 

approach described in Section 5. 

4.3.2 Very Large Resort/Casino Hotel 

Turning Stone Resort and Casino 

An example of a very large casino resort is the 

Turning Stone Resort and Casino in upstate New York. 

This resort operated by the Oneida Indian Nation 

recently underwent a $310 million expansion that will 

ultimately double the space to nearly 2 million square 

feet. This expansion included a $13.1 million gas 

turbine combined cooling heating and power facility 

that provides 5.5 MW of power on a continuous basis. 

The turbine exhaust heat is recovered using a heat 

recovery steam generator (HRSG) producing steam at 

125psig for service hot water, space heating, and 2,000 

tons of absorption chiller capacity to provide space 

cooling. 

The resort consists of 4 separate lodging 

accommodations with over 750 rooms and suites These 

accommodations include the original 4-story, 271 

room, 20 suite hotel, the new 19-story 287 room, 7 

suite Tower, a 4-story 88 room all suite Lodge, and a 

no-frills 2-story 63 room inn. There is a 500,000 

square foot casino with 2400 slot machines, over 100 

table games, and a 1300 seat Bingo parlor. There are 

11 restaurants and coffee shops, a fitness facility with 

65’ indoor pool, a 30,000 s.f. Event Center for 

entertainment and trade shows, a 2400 car parking 

garage, and a large Clubhouse serving the three golf courses that has additional banquet and meeting 

facilities. There is also an RV park and a soon to be completed spa. The resort employs 4200 people and 

has over 4.5 million visitors per year. 

Before the current expansion, the facility used 28.7 million kWh per year at a cost of $2.4 million 

and 94,000 MMBtu/year of natural gas at a cost of $500,000. The peak load on the facility was 6 MW 

with a minimum demand of 2.5 MW. The expansion, most of which is completed, will more than double 

the consumption of both gas (200,000 MMBtu/year) and electricity (57.6 million kWh) with a 

corresponding peak demand 11.1 MW and minimum demand of over 5 MW. Peak cooling load will 

increase to nearly 4,000 tons.14 

14 BCHP Feasibility Study for Turning Stone Casino, CDH Energy Corporation, March 2003. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 34 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Figure 14 shows the comparison of the post expansion facility load with the load after a 5.5 MW 

CHP system with absorption cooling was installed. Without CHP, the facility electric loads would have 

been a minimum of 5.5 MW with summer peaks of over 11 MW. With the BCHP system (building 

cooling heating and power) the facility generates its own power year-round and peak loads are reduced 

by 2.9 MW due to the addition of gas cooling using double effect absorption chillers fired by the steam 

produced by the HRSG. The spikes in April and October represent scheduled outage periods for the gas 

turbine during which time the facility relies on the electric chillers to meet the cooling load. As designed 

at full build-out, the CHP system meets 90% of the electric energy for the facility (84% from the turbine 

generator and 6% from the displaced electric cooling). The CHP system as analyzed in the feasibility 

study was projected to meet 79% of the peak load – 52% from the generator output and 27% from the 

displaced electric cooling load. Figure 15 shows the projected facility load with absorption cooling and 

the utility purchases with BCHP. 

The CHP system is designed to assume 69% of the facility thermal loads in addition to providing 

the steam energy for the absorption chillers. 

Source: CDH Energy Corporation 

Figure 14 Load Comparison for the Facility with and without CHP 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 35 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Source: CDH Corporation 

Figure 15 Facility Loads and Utility Purchase Requirements for CHP System 

The CHP system was completed and went into operation in 2004. Gas prices are much higher 

now than during the planning period resulting in recent operating losses. The Oneida Indian Nation is 

planning to connect some of their own gas wells to the facility, which will provide a captive source of 

fuel for the system. The heat recovery hasn’t reached full potential yet as all of the new space has not yet 

been completed, so the total CHP efficiency is currently approximately 50% -- below the projected 70­

75%. 

The resort had to change out the casino air handlers and revise designs in an effort to control the 

indoor air quality of the casino. The casino is exempt from New York State’s smoking ban in public 

buildings and there was a significant problem in both air quality and equipment performance due to the 

smoke that needed to be removed from the casino floor. The resort facility management questioned the 

understanding of A&E firms and CHP developers concerning the complexities of a casino compared 

with more standard hotel designs. There was also considerable discontent concerning the utility standby 

rate structure and the electric industry restructuring rules concerning wholesale power markets that have 

perpetuated high power costs in New York State. 

The Borgata Casino Hotel and Spa and the Marina Thermal Facility 

The Borgata Casino Hotel and Spa located in the Renaissance Pointe area of Atlantic City’s 

Marina District, completed in 2003, is touted as the first “Las Vegas style” resort in Atlantic City. The 3 

million square foot facility is served by an energy plant called the Marina Thermal Facility that provides 

hot water and chilled water and emergency back-up electricity for the complex.15 

15 Energy consumption data in this section was provided by the Marina Thermal Facility developer, DCO Energy, LLC. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 36 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
The resort is an extensive and complex facility that does share the typical features of a Las Vegas 

strip casino hotel, such as: 

 2002 guest rooms and suites 

 7 story parking garage 

 70,000 ft2 Event Center 

 125,000 ft2 Casino 

 11 Restaurants 

 2 night clubs and 3 bars 

 50,000 ft2 European Health Spa & Pool 

 11 Retail Boutiques 

 1.5 million ft2 (140,000 m2) tower 

 1.5 million ft2 (140,000 m2) low rise building. 

Thermal energy and back-up power is provided by the brand new Marina Thermal Facility 

(MTF), a 26,000-square-foot plant, to provide the hot and chilled water needed to heat and cool The 

Borgata Casino Hotel. The $54 million plant is capable of providing nearly 15,000 gallons of chilled 

water and 2,600 gallons of heated water per minute, delivering enough hot and chilled water to meet all 

of The Borgata’s heating, cooling and domestic hot water needs. 

Electric Use 

The Borgata consumes about 86 million kWh/year. Figure 16 compares the peak summer week 

with a cold winter week. Loads are lowest on Mondays and Tuesdays increasing throughout the week to 

a peak on the weekends. Peak summer load for 2004 was 16.1 MW; peak winter loads are between 9 and 

10 MW per day. Minimum electric loads of 7 MW/day occur during the winter with minimum daily 

summer loads above the peak winter loads of 10 MW/day. 

Thermal Energy Use 

The thermal energy delivered to the casino was evaluated in terms of the energy content. Figure 

17 compares the thermal delivery for January, April, August, and October. These months show winter, 

summer, and Spring/Fall thermal loads. The graphs show that thermal loads are high in both the summer 

and winter with cooling and heating loads swapping the primary roles. In the spring and fall months, 

thermal loads are about 60% of winter/summer values. Figure 18 shows the loads on an annual basis. 

These loads reflect thermal energy delivered to the facility. The estimated gas consumption to deliver 

this energy, assuming 80% efficient boilers, is 498 billion Btu/year. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 37 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
August 2004

20

40

60

80

100

1 15-Minute Data

MMBtu/hr

April 2004

20

40

60

80

100

1 15-Minute Data

MMBtu/hr

October 2004

20

40

60

80

100

1 15-Minute Data

MMBtu/hr

January 2004

20

40

60

80

100

1 15-Minute Data

MMBtu/hr

CHilled Water

Hot Water

Marina Thermal Facility 

Summer vs Winter Loads 

18.0 

16.0 

14.0 

12.0 

10.0 

8.0 

6.0 

4.0 Jan 12-18, 2004 

2.0 Aug 23-29 2004 0.0 

Electric Demand MW

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday
 

Figure 16 Summer and Winter Electric Consumption – Marina Thermal Facility 

January 2004 April 2004 

August 2004 

MMBtu/hr 

1 15-Minute Data CHilled Water 

Hot Water 

100 100

80 80

MMBtu/hr 60 

40 

60 

40 

20 20

- - 1 15-Minute Data 

October 2004 

- -

20 

40 

60 

80 

100 

1 15-Minute Data 

MMBtu/hr 

-

20 

40 

60 

80 

100 

1 15-Minute Data 

MMBtu/hr 

Figure 17 Seasonal Thermal Loads – Marina Thermal Facility 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 38 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
January 

February

March

April

May

June

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

Monthly Thermal Use 

Atlantic City 

0 

10,000 

20,000 

30,000 

40,000 

50,000 

60,000 

Million/Btu/month 

Chilled Water 

Hot Water 

Figure 18 Annual Thermal Loads by Month – Marina Thermal Facility 

Effect of Climate and Cooling Equipment Changes on Energy Use 

The use of absorption chillers is a feature of the Borgata that is not as common as the use of 

electric chillers. In an electrically cooled facility, the thermal energy use would be represented by the hot 

water delivery components of the previous two figures. In this type of facility, gas consumption would 

be reduced by more than half to 229 billion Btu/year. 

Electric use would be correspondingly increased as shown in Figure 19. Peak load would be 

increased by about 4.5 MW and annual consumption increased by 13 million kWh. Peak cooling load is 

actually 5.4 MW but this cooling peak doesn’t correspond to the peak facility load which occurred at 

3:15pm August 29th. Peak loads for cooling in the hot desert climate of Las Vegas are not increased 

compared to corresponding peak loads in Atlantic City due to the greater contribution of the cooling 

tower to overall cooling loads. 

Most hotels with characteristics similar to the Borgata are in Las Vegas. Therefore, heating and 

cooling loads were re-estimated for the facility based on remodeling the temperature sensitive loads. In 

Las Vegas, heating loads are much lower and cooling loads are much higher. Figure 20 shows the 

monthly thermal loads estimated for the facility in the Las Vegas climate. On an annual basis, hot water 

loads (including space heating) are 70% of what they are in Atlantic City, chilled water loads are 140% 

of what they are in Atlantic City. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 39 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
January 

February

March

April

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

Marina Thermal Facility 

Aug 23-29 Estimated Loads with All Electric Chillers 

0.0 

5.0 

10.0 

15.0 

20.0 

25.0 

Electric Demand MW 

Added Chiller Loads 

Electric Loads 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday 

Figure 19 Effect of Converting Absorption Chiller Loads to Electricity 

Monthly Thermal Use 

Las Vegas 

0 

10,000 

20,000 

30,000 

40,000 

50,000 

60,000 

Million/Btu/month 

Chilled Water 

Hot Water 

Figure 20 Monthly Total Thermal Loads – Las Vegas Climate 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 40 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Table 20 summarizes energy consumption measures for the Borgata and for 3 alternative 

configurations of climate and cooling energy source. 

Table 20 Load Analysis for Mega-Hotel in Alternative Locations and Configurations 

Energy Measure Units Actual Estimate 1 Estimate 2 Estimate 3 

Climate Atlantic 

City 

Absorptio 

Atlantic 

City Las Vegas 

Absorptio 

Las Vegas 

Cooling n Electric n Electric 

Annual Electric Consumption Million 

kWh/year 86.1 99.4 86.1 104.9 

Annual Gas Consumption MMBtu/year 498,441 229,364 538,220 159,748 

Electric Load Factor Percent 61% 53% 61% 56% 

Electric EUI kWh/year/s.f. 28.7 33.1 28.7 35.0 

Gas EUI KBtu/year/s.f. 166.1 76.5 179.4 53.2 

Peak Load MW 16.1 21.3 16.1 21.3 

Average Load MW 9.8 11.3 9.8 12.0 

Minimum Load MW 7.0 7.4 7.0 7.4 

Base Thermal Load MMBtu/hour 30 12 29 12 

Base Thermal Share of Total Percent 53% 46% 47% 66% 

For these large facilities, the inclusion of thermally activated cooling systems allows a significant 

economic expansion of the CHP system. These size relationships are used in the next section for the 

market screening analysis. 

5. CHP TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC MARKET POTENTIAL 

This section describes the results of an analysis of the technical and economic market potential 

for CHP in hotels and casinos. Figure 21 shows the basic approach that consists of the following steps: 

 Evaluation of the number of hotels by size and by state based on the breakdown shown in 

Section 2 – Table 8. 

 Removal of the existing CHP, described in Section 3, from the database of remaining 

hotels. 

 Characterization of the appropriate CHP sizing for hotels by size class based on the load 

analysis presented in Section 4. 

 Calculation of the technical market potential in megawatts which is the sum-product of 

the CHP sizing times the number of hotels by size and state after the hotels that already 

have CHP are subtracted. 

 Characterization of average gas and electric prices by state using EIA data. 

 Characterization of the cost and performance of typical CHP systems in the size classes 

selected for each of the hotel size categories based on prior EEA analyses. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 41 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Number of Hotels by 

Size and State

Existing CHP Sites

By Size and State

Remaining CHP 

Technical Market Potential

Gas and Electric Prices

By State

CHP Paybacks by 

Size and by State

Economic Market Potential

By Size and State

 

 Calculation of paybacks for each size and state category based on the CHP system 

performance and the average energy prices. 

 Calculation of the economic market potential as all CHP capacity that shows an economic 

payback of less than 10 years. 

CHP Sizing

By Hotel Rooms

CHP Cost and

Performance

By Size

Number of Hotels by 

Size and State 

Existing CHP Sites 

By Size and State 

Remaining CHP 

Technical Market Potential 

CHP Sizing 

By Hotel Rooms 

Gas and Electric Prices 

By State CHP Cost and 

Performance 

By Size 

CHP Paybacks by 

Size and by State 

Economic Market Potential 

By Size and State 

Figure 21 Hotel Market CHP Screening Approach 

Table 21 summarizes the results of this market screening approach. There are 9,464 hotels in the 

target market of hotels with more than 100 rooms. The hotels are separated into five size categories. 

Nearly two thirds of the hotels fall into the 100-199 room size, and 94% of the hotels are less than 500 

rooms. There are 148 mega-hotels in the U.S. with more than 1,000 rooms. There are 98 hotels with 

existing CHP but 19 of these are in hotels with fewer than 100 rooms; therefore only 79 hotels with CHP 

are subtracted from the target market16. 

Appropriate CHP sizing for each category is shown in the Table. For the 100-199 room size, it 

was assumed that CHP would be sized to the addressable thermal load which is less than the minimum 

electric load. This value was based on the estimated sizing described in Section 4.3.1 for a 230 room full 

service hotel. This value was reduced proportionally to an assumed average size of 150 rooms. For the 

200-499 room category it was assumed that sizing would be at the minimum electric load and include 

absorption chillers for air conditioning. The CHP system for the 500-999 room size category was set at 1 

MW based on evaluation of existing CHP systems. CHP for the 1000-1999 room size category was 

sized based on the Turning Stone Casino system. The sizing for the 2000+ rooms category was based on 

a sizing that was 40% larger than the energy requirements of the Borgata/Marina Thermal Facility. 

The total remaining technical market potential for CHP in this target market is 2,773 MW. After 

screening each state and size category for paybacks, the economic market potential is 1,456 MW based 

on current energy pricing and near-term technology cost and performance. Only 23% of the market 

below 200 rooms is economic. However, as the hotel and CHP system sizes get larger, the share of the 

technical market that is economic increases. In addition, the largest hotels are more and more 

concentrated in the states that have favorable economics so that 90% of the 1000-1999 room hotels are 

economic and 97% of the 2000+ room hotels are economic. 

16 The nineteen existing CHP systems installed in hotels with 100 rooms or less were also installed prior to 1990. 

This size of hotel is not normally considered a candidate for CHP in today’s environment. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 42 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

Table 21 Summary of Hotel CHP Market Screening Results 

Screening Approach 100-199 

Number of Rooms 

200-499 500-999 1000-1999 2000+ 

Total 

Hotels in U.S. 

Hotels with CHP 

6,323 

33 

2,614 379 116 

30 9 5 

32 

2 

9,464 

79 

Remaining Market (sites) 6,290 2,584 370 111 30 9,385 

Appropriate CHP Size (kW) 90 380 1,000 5,000 10,000 

Technical Market Potential (MW) 566 982 370 555 300 2,773 

Economic Market Potential (MW) 130 371 170 495 290 1,456 

% of Market Economic 22.9% 37.8% 45.9% 89.2% 96.7% 52.5% 

Additional detail is presented in the following sections and detailed state-by-state results are 

presented in Appendix A. 

Energy Prices 

To compute economics for a CHP system, it is necessary to understand the applicable electric and 

gas rates that hotels must pay for their energy. In analyzing CHP competitiveness for a real project, it is 

important to understand the specific tariffs that are used and other factors such as standby charges. For 

this simple screening, the purpose is simply to indicate areas of the country that appear to have favorable 

conditions based on a comparison of average prices. Average retail price information was taken from the 

Energy Information Administration (EIA). 

In this report, natural gas prices reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) were 

used as the basis. EIA reports average prices of natural gas at several points in the supply chain, 

including: 

• Electric Utility Power Generation Station (lower than industrial customer rate) 

• Industrial Customer 

For commercial and industrial customers, the EIA industrial price point was used as an estimate 

of the cost of natural gas prior to the installation of the CHP system. Gas utilities frequently offer lower 

rate tariffs to customers that install CHP systems. To estimate the price of natural gas after the CHP 

system is installed, the EIA industrial and utility generation prices were averaged. The rationale for this 

approach is that commercial and industrial CHP customers are likely to pay a reduced gas rate after the 

CHP system is installed, but the rate will not be as low as the rate paid by electric utilities that consume 

large volumes of natural gas for central or peaking power stations. For some states, EIA did not report 

either the utility or the industrial price. In these cases, the estimated cost for natural gas for the CHP 

system was computed by either adding $1.00 to the utility price or subtracting $1.00 from the industrial 

price. This approximation was based on reviewing the EIA data, with a focus on California and New 

York, and concluding that the average difference between utility and industrial rates is near $2.00. The 

gas rates used in this assessment are shown in Appendix A. 

Figure 22 shows average industrial electric rates by state. While hotels are not industrial 

facilities, the size and scope of operations more closely matches the EIA industrial price than the EIA 

commercial price, which is affected by a large number of very small commercial customers. The figure is 

ordered from left to right in terms of the rates that produced the lowest paybacks. For example, Louisiana 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 43 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
has lower electric rates than New York, but is ranked ahead of New York because of its lower gas rates. 

The figure shows that there are 13 states in which all hotel size categories pass the economic screen. In 

these states, all market sizes are economic. There are an additional 14 states in which only hotels larger 

than 1000 rooms are economic. Only 7 of these 14 states actually have such large hotels. 

Average Industrial Electric Prices 

16 

Cents/kWh 

14 

12 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

All Hotels Economic Mega Hotels (1000+ rooms) Economic 

States with Mega Hotels Shown In Red 

States not shown are not economic 

HI

AKNH

CT

RI

VT

MA

CA

NJ

NV

LA

NY

TX

FL

MI

AZ

NMMN

TN

CO

ND

MS

PADE

GA

WI

NC 

Figure 22 Average Large Customer Electric Prices in Order of Highest to Lowest CHP 

Competitiveness 

CHP System Cost and Performance 

For the sizing selected for each category, a typical CHP system was selected based on near-term 

technology characteristics. These systems are shown in Table 22. The table shows installed cost, the cost 

of adding absorption cooling, heat rate, recoverable waste heat, and non-fuel O&M costs. For small 

systems, reciprocating engines, microturbines, and fuel cells can be used. Gas engines were selected for 

the comparison because, based on existing technology, they provide the best economics. Larger systems 

of 5 to 10 megawatts can utilize gas turbines or multiple engines. Reciprocating engines are more 

efficient, but gas turbines provide high quality thermal energy (steam) that can be used to drive efficient 

double-effect absorption chillers. Only a portion of reciprocating engine heat can be used to produce 

steam. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 44 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

Table 22 CHP Technology Cost and Performance 

100-199 

Number of Rooms 

200-499 500-999 

1000­

1999 2000+ 

Typical CHP System Type 

Approximate CHP Capacity, kW 

Basic Capital Costs ($/kW) 

Absorption Chiller Cost Adder ($/kW) 

Early Market/Site Specific Multiplier 

Installed Costs, $/kW 

Heat Rate, Btu/kWh 

Electric Efficiency, % 

Thermal Output, Btu/kWh 

O&M Costs, $/kWh 

Recip. 

Engine 

100 

$1,350 

Not Used 

128% 

$1,728 

11,500 

29.7% 

5300 

$0.018 

Recip. 

Engine 

300 

$1,150 

$294 

108% 

$1,559 

11,500 

29.7% 

5300 

$0.013 

Recip. 

Engine 

1000 

$1,100 

$203 

108% 

$1,407 

10,350 

33.0% 

3709 

$0.012 

Recip. 

Engine 

5000 

$900 

$105 

105% 

$1,055 

9,213 

37.0% 

3345 

$0.008 

Gas 

Turbine 

10000 

$950 

$67 

105% 

$1,068 

11,765 

29.0% 

4674 

$0.006 

Market Screening 

Table 23 shows the economic potential by size and state. The states are ordered from lowest 

payback at the top to highest payback at the bottom. The smaller sized systems are economic in fewer 

states because the installed costs are higher and the electrical efficiencies are somewhat lower. The 

highest economic potential states are shown in green. These state/size combinations have screening 

paybacks of less than 5.5 years which corresponds to a return on investment of 10% or greater. The total 

high return potential is 908 MW. The state/size combinations shown in yellow have paybacks greater 

than 5.5 years and less than 10 years. Facilities in this range were also included in the economic potential 

for a number of reasons. Some facilities may accept a longer payback; certain site specific factors might 

improve the payback for an individual facility; and there might be other factors such as incentive 

payments. For example, California 100-199 room hotels are shown in yellow, screening payback of 5.6 

years, though this has been and continues to be a very active state for CHP development due to incentive 

payments on CHP that reduce the initial investment. 

Table 24 shows the top 10 states in terms of total MW economic market potential. Nevada has 

the highest potential due to the extremely high concentration of mega-hotel/casinos in Las Vegas. 

California is second followed by Florida, Texas, and New York. Of the 11 states in the top 10 

(Mississippi and Georgia are tied at number 10) four of them have commercial casinos and seven have 

tribal casinos. Only three of the states have no casinos – Hawaii, Georgia, and Massachusetts. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 45 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 23 Hotel Market CHP Economic Screening Results 

States MW of Economic CHP Potential

Econ. Potential 

Highest to 

Lowest 

100­

199 200-499 

500­

999 1000-1999 

2000 

+ 

Total 

(MW) 

Hawaii 1 16 19 25 10 71 

Alaska 2 4 2 8 

New 

Hampshire 3 5 8 

Connecticut 8 8 1 5 21 

Rhode Island 2 5 6 

Vermont 3 2 5 10 

Massachusetts 12 27 5 5 49 

California 50 121 49 55 276 

New Jersey 13 22 9 25 10 80 

Nevada 5 23 29 100 230 387 

Louisiana 11 21 9 20 61 

New York 20 38 27 40 125 

Texas 79 20 30 129 

Florida 110 40 150 

Michigan 5 5 

Arizona 

New Mexico 

Minnesota 

Tennessee 

Colorado Not 10 10 

North Dakota 

Economi 

c 

Mississippi 25 25 

Pennsylvania 5 5 

Delaware 

Georgia 25 25 

Wisconsin 

North Carolina 5 5 

All other states 

U.S. Total 130 371 170 495 290 1,456 

High Return 

Total 30 233 85 310 250 908 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 46 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
Table 24 Top State CHP Targets for the Hotel Industry in Terms of MW of Economic 

Potential 

Top 10 States 

(and ties) MW 

Nevada 387 

California 276 

Florida 150 

Texas 129 

New York 125 

New Jersey 80 

Hawaii 71 

Louisiana 61 

Massachusetts 49 

Mississippi 25 

Georgia 25 

All other states 78 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 47 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
 

6. CONCLUSIONS 

This analysis has shown that there is significant market potential for CHP in the hotel and casino 

market. This market potential is concentrated in the larger, full-service facilities. While there are nearly 

48,000 hotels in the U.S., less than 10,000 of them have the usage and energy characteristics suitable for 

CHP using current technology. The economic cut-off for this analysis was set at 100-rooms or greater, 

though it is possible that CHP can be effectively placed in hotels below this size threshold. Of the 98 

existing CHP systems in hotels, 20% of them are in hotels with fewer than 100 rooms. 

The large mega-resort hotels of 1,000 rooms or greater represent a distinct and very important 

market segment. These huge facilities have more in common from an energy standpoint with a small 

university than with a small business hotel or roadside motel. These facilities are typically, though not 

exclusively, associated with casino gaming. There are multiple restaurants, nightclubs and other 

entertainment venues, spas, casinos, health clubs, movie theaters, shops, and often large attractions – 

zoos, aquaria, fountains, even an “active” volcano. The facilities occupy millions of square feet of 

building space and the energy usage intensity per square foot is much higher than for the typical business 

hotel. 

There are 148 hotels in the U.S. with more than 1,000 rooms. The economic market potential for 

CHP in these mega-sites represents 54% of the total economic potential for CHP in the hotel industry. 

There are 32 hotels with more than 2,000 rooms and 75% of them are on the Las Vegas strip. These 

facilities could support CHP systems with an average size of 10 MW each representing 20% of the 

economic potential. 

One of the big drivers for CHP in these large facilities is to provide the thousands of tons of air 

conditioning needed using the waste heat from the on-site electric generation. Industrial gas turbine 

generators can produce power for the facility baseload needs and the high temperature exhaust can be 

converted to steam in heat recovery steam generators that can be used to drive a central heating and 

cooling plant. 

The remaining identified market is in hotels with 100 to 999 rooms. These facilities are less 

energy intensive than the large casino and resort hotels, but they still have round-the-clock electric and 

thermal loads that can effectively support CHP. As the hotel sizes get smaller, the cost of absorption 

chillers goes up, and their effectiveness goes down. It is not considered cost-effective with current 

technology to try to include absorption cooling in a hotel system until the generator size reaches about 

300 kW. This size can support about a 100-ton absorption system. Hotels need to have more than 200 

rooms before such a system would be warranted. 

In smaller hotel sizes, without adding cooling, it is very important to size the system to the 

available thermal load. As shown in Section 4, a system with 70-80% seasonal utilization of the 

available thermal load is going to be utilizing only about 60% the capacity of a system that is sized to the 

minimum facility electric load. The problem is that there are fairly wide swings in thermal energy 

consumption during the day, with nighttime values dropping considerably. The key thermal load is the 

hot water for the guest rooms, though it may be possible to augment these loads with hot water needs for 

the kitchen, laundry, pools, and even space heating seasonally. 

While there is an economic opportunity to expand the use of CHP in the hotel industry, the 

current market penetration is just under 1% of available sites. When only sites within the economic states 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 48 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
and sizes are considered, the market penetration increases to 2% for the 100-199 room hotel category up 

to 7% for the largest size category of more than 2,000 rooms. Hotel management is focused on hotel 

business and investment is geared to adding to guest amenities. However, hotels are comfortable with 

contracted facilities management and arrangements with energy service companies. General awareness 

of CHP advantages needs to be increased in the hotel industry, and detailed options and approaches need 

to be circulated among engineering firms, potential developers, and energy service companies that serve 

the industry. 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 49 Hotel and Casino CHP Market Assessment 
APPENDIX A: TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC MARKET SCREENING TABLES 

Table A1 Target Market for CHP in the Hotel Industry 

State 

100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 

Number of Rooms 

2000+ 

Total 

Alabama 110 24 1 135 

Alaska 22 11 2 35 

Arizona 198 57 12 267 

Arkansas 46 18 64 

California 581 337 51 12 981 

Colorado 155 66 9 2 232 

Connecticut 87 21 1 2 111 

DC 32 35 8 2 77 

Delaware 18 6 24 

Florida 606 285 57 22 4 974 

Georgia 229 79 7 5 320 

Hawaii 9 43 21 5 1 79 

Idaho 31 5 1 37 

Illinois 220 115 16 5 1 357 

Indiana 102 33 5 140 

Iowa 64 17 81 

Kansas 58 14 72 

Kentucky 69 29 2 1 101 

Louisiana 122 54 9 4 189 

Maine 40 8 48 

Maryland 135 47 4 1 187 

Massachusetts 139 73 5 2 219 

Michigan 187 56 5 1 249 

Minnesota 103 53 6 162 

Mississippi 51 17 7 5 80 

Missouri 139 60 11 210 

Montana 26 7 1 34 

Nebraska 33 10 43 

Nevada 53 61 29 20 24 187 

New Hampshire 36 13 49 

New Jersey 153 63 9 5 1 231 

New Mexico 68 18 86 

New York 225 101 29 10 365 

North Carolina 232 40 4 1 277 

North Dakota 18 4 22 

Ohio 198 77 4 279 

Oklahoma 41 21 1 63 

Oregon 91 26 2 119 

Pennsylvania 230 76 8 1 315 

Rhode Island 17 12 29 

South Carolina 113 41 12 1 167 

South Dakota 19 7 26 

Tennessee 170 57 2 1 230 

Texas 411 209 20 6 646 

Utah 71 17 4 1 93 

Vermont 28 6 1 35 

Virginia 241 95 6 342 

Washington 131 39 4 174 

West Virginia 43 7 1 1 52 

Wisconsin 100 35 3 138 

Wyoming 22 9 31 

U.S. Total 6,323 2,614 379 116 32 9,464 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 50 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
Table A2 Existing CHP by State and Hotel Size (as of September 2005) 

State 

Number of Rooms Grand 

Total <100 100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 2000+ 

Alabama 

Alaska 1 1 2 

Arizona 1 1 

Arkansas 

California 16 20 18 2 1 57 

Colorado 

Connecticut 1 1 2 

DC 

Delaware 

Florida 1 1 

Georgia 

Hawaii 1 2 3 

Idaho 

Illinois 

Indiana 1 1 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 1 1 2 1 5 

Michigan 1 1 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 1 1 

Montana 

Nebraska 1 1 

Nevada 1 1 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 4 4 8 

New Mexico 1 1 

New York 2 2 2 6 

North Carolina 

North Dakota 1 1 

Ohio 1 1 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

South Dakota 

Tennessee 1 1 

Texas 1 1 2 

Utah 1 1 

Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington 

West Virginia 1 1 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 

U.S. Total 19 33 30 9 5 2 98 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 51 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
Table A3 Remaining Hotel Technical Market Potential (Sites)) 

State 

100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 

Hotels by Number of Rooms 

2000+ 

Total 

Alabama 110 24 1 135 

Alaska 21 10 2 33 

Arizona 198 57 11 266 

Arkansas 46 18 64 

California 561 319 49 11 940 

Colorado 155 66 9 2 232 

Connecticut 87 20 1 1 109 

DC 32 35 8 2 77 

Delaware 18 6 24 

Florida 606 284 57 22 4 973 

Georgia 229 79 7 5 320 

Hawaii 8 43 19 5 1 76 

Idaho 31 5 1 37 

Illinois 220 115 16 5 1 357 

Indiana 102 33 5 140 

Iowa 64 17 81 

Kansas 58 14 72 

Kentucky 69 29 2 1 101 

Louisiana 122 54 9 4 189 

Maine 40 8 48 

Maryland 135 47 4 1 187 

Massachusetts 138 71 5 1 215 

Michigan 186 56 5 1 248 

Minnesota 103 53 6 162 

Mississippi 51 17 7 5 80 

Missouri 139 60 11 210 

Montana 26 7 1 34 

Nebraska 33 9 42 

Nevada 53 61 29 20 23 186 

New Hampshire 36 13 49 

New Jersey 149 59 9 5 1 223 

New Mexico 67 18 85 

New York 223 101 27 8 359 

North Carolina 232 40 4 1 277 

North Dakota 18 3 21 

Ohio 197 77 4 278 

Oklahoma 41 21 1 63 

Oregon 91 26 2 119 

Pennsylvania 230 76 8 1 315 

Rhode Island 17 12 29 

South Carolina 113 41 12 1 167 

South Dakota 19 7 26 

Tennessee 170 57 2 229 

Texas 410 208 20 6 644 

Utah 71 17 3 1 92 

Vermont 28 6 1 35 

Virginia 241 95 6 342 

Washington 131 39 4 174 

West Virginia 43 7 1 51 

Wisconsin 100 35 3 138 

Wyoming 22 9 31 

U.S. Total 6290 2584 370 111 30 9385 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 52 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
Table A4 Remaining Hotel Technical Market Potential (MW)) 

State 

100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 2000+ 

MW CHP Technical Potential by Number of Rooms Total 

MW 

Alabama 10 9 1 20 

Alaska 2 4 2 8 

Arizona 18 22 11 50 

Arkansas 4 7 11 

California 50 121 49 55 276 

Colorado 14 25 9 10 58 

Connecticut 8 8 1 5 21 

DC 3 13 8 10 34 

Delaware 2 2 4 

Florida 55 108 57 110 40 369 

Georgia 21 30 7 25 83 

Hawaii 1 16 19 25 10 71 

Idaho 3 2 1 6 

Illinois 20 44 16 25 10 115 

Indiana 9 13 5 27 

Iowa 6 6 12 

Kansas 5 5 11 

Kentucky 6 11 2 5 24 

Louisiana 11 21 9 20 61 

Maine 4 3 7 

Maryland 12 18 4 5 39 

Massachusetts 12 27 5 5 49 

Michigan 17 21 5 5 48 

Minnesota 9 20 6 35 

Mississippi 5 6 7 25 43 

Missouri 13 23 11 46 

Montana 2 3 1 6 

Nebraska 3 3 6 

Nevada 5 23 29 100 230 387 

New Hampshire 3 5 8 

New Jersey 13 22 9 25 10 80 

New Mexico 6 7 13 

New York 20 38 27 40 125 

North Carolina 21 15 4 5 45 

North Dakota 2 1 3 

Ohio 18 29 4 51 

Oklahoma 4 8 1 13 

Oregon 8 10 2 20 

Pennsylvania 21 29 8 5 63 

Rhode Island 2 5 6 

South Carolina 10 16 12 5 43 

South Dakota 2 3 4 

Tennessee 15 22 2 39 

Texas 37 79 20 30 166 

Utah 6 6 3 5 21 

Vermont 3 2 5 10 

Virginia 22 36 6 64 

Washington 12 15 4 31 

West Virginia 4 3 5 12 

Wisconsin 9 13 3 25 

Wyoming 2 3 5 

U.S. Total 566 982 370 555 300 2,773 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 53 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table A5 Average Energy Prices by State 

State 

Average 

Industrial 

Electric 

Price 

¢/kWh 

Average 

Industrial 

Gas Price 

$/MMBtu 

Average 

CHP Gas 

Price 

$/MMBtu 

Alabama 4.42 $7.15 $6.15 

Alaska 9.03 $2.09 $2.41 

Arizona 5.79 $7.14 $6.41 

Arkansas 4.54 $7.69 $6.69 

California 8.60 $7.74 $6.78 

Colorado 5.54 $6.36 $5.92 

Connecticut 9.47 $8.31 $7.31 

DC 3.68 $7.70 $6.70 

Delaware 5.25 $7.60 $6.60 

Florida 6.29 $8.49 $7.37 

Georgia 5.10 $7.42 $6.42 

Hawaii 14.89 $12.87 $11.87 

Idaho 3.95 $6.80 $5.80 

Illinois 4.79 $7.96 $7.21 

Indiana 4.38 $7.73 $6.73 

Iowa 4.66 $7.16 $6.98 

Kansas 4.87 $6.40 $5.95 

Kentucky 3.67 $7.24 $6.24 

Louisiana 6.28 $6.39 $5.39 

Maine 3.46 $10.16 $8.32 

Maryland 4.85 $10.07 $9.07 

Massachusetts 9.06 $11.41 $8.91 

Michigan 5.55 $6.85 $5.85 

Minnesota 5.10 $6.47 $5.47 

Mississippi 5.04 $6.97 $5.97 

Missouri 4.79 $8.67 $7.67 

Montana 4.41 $7.94 $6.94 

Nebraska 4.33 $6.44 $6.57 

Nevada 7.53 $7.20 $6.53 

New Hampshire 11.08 $10.60 $9.60 

New Jersey 8.79 $8.44 $7.44 

New Mexico 5.46 $7.08 $6.08 

New York 7.28 $8.45 $7.46 

North Carolina 5.06 $7.46 $6.46 

North Dakota 4.41 $5.55 $4.55 

Ohio 4.91 $9.17 $8.17 

Oklahoma 4.92 $8.78 $7.78 

Oregon 4.07 $6.13 $5.13 

Pennsylvania 6.06 $9.02 $8.02 

Rhode Island 9.60 $9.38 $8.14 

South Carolina 4.45 $7.53 $6.53 

South Dakota 4.94 $6.08 $6.03 

Tennessee 4.77 $5.83 $4.83 

Texas 6.44 $5.75 $5.76 

Utah 4.26 $7.20 $6.53 

Vermont 8.04 $5.88 $4.88 

Virginia 4.47 $7.70 $6.70 

Washington 3.78 $7.16 $6.16 

West Virginia 3.87 $7.24 $6.24 

Wisconsin 5.30 $7.82 $6.82 

Wyoming 3.93 $6.34 $4.90 

U.S. Average 5.47 $6.24 $6.09 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 54 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
Table A6 CHP Investment Paybacks by Size and State, Sorted Best to Worst 

State 

100-199 200-499 500-999 1000-1999 2000+ 

CHP Paybacks by Number of Rooms and State 

Hawaii 3.10 2.63 2.29 1.49 1.64 

Alaska 4.22 3.51 2.68 1.84 1.88 

New Hampshire 4.69 3.86 3.48 2.16 2.39 

Connecticut 5.17 4.22 3.71 2.34 2.50 

Rhode Island 5.30 4.32 3.91 2.43 2.62 

Vermont 5.45 4.43 3.75 2.44 2.50 

Massachusetts 5.40 4.39 4.31 2.63 2.77 

California 5.97 4.81 4.26 2.65 2.82 

New Jersey 6.13 4.92 4.45 2.72 2.94 

Nevada 8.25 6.38 5.81 3.41 3.72 

Louisiana 9.80 7.38 6.86 3.98 4.18 

New York 9.88 7.43 7.44 4.04 4.52 

Texas 13.52 9.58 8.71 4.64 5.30 

Florida 15.05 10.40 12.10 5.64 6.48 

Michigan 15.82 10.81 11.52 5.71 6.21 

Arizona 18.26 12.02 13.34 6.12 7.04 

New Mexico 18.14 11.97 13.52 6.28 6.96 

Minnesota 19.00 12.37 13.63 6.44 6.95 

Tennessee 19.31 12.52 13.29 6.48 6.78 

Colorado 21.44 13.49 14.51 6.51 7.57 

North Dakota 23.39 14.31 15.75 7.29 7.55 

Mississippi 24.87 14.92 18.97 7.67 8.63 

Pennsylvania 24.31 14.69 22.75 7.71 9.90 

Delaware 27.62 15.97 22.85 8.21 9.70 

Georgia 29.60 16.69 24.31 8.52 10.01 

Wisconsin 29.41 16.62 25.33 8.53 10.30 

North Carolina 31.86 17.46 26.70 8.88 10.53 

Wyoming 35.37 18.59 28.19 10.00 10.09 

Kansas 52.87 23.02 35.35 10.03 12.73 

South Dakota 107.97 30.55 53.90 11.29 16.18 

Oregon 57.41 23.94 42.27 11.48 12.66 

Alabama 86.27 28.31 98.66 13.42 16.80 

Arkansas 176.13 34.76 negative 16.04 22.88 

South Carolina 188.66 35.28 negative 16.17 22.56 

Virginia 377.87 39.36 negative 17.71 26.46 

Illinois negative 46.85 negative 18.72 35.59 

Idaho negative 45.71 negative 19.46 25.60 

Oklahoma negative 45.56 negative 20.39 43.52 

Indiana negative 48.26 negative 20.75 33.98 

Missouri negative 53.57 negative 23.02 54.83 

Montana negative 56.85 negative 23.56 44.78 

Utah negative 101.25 negative 27.94 70.02 

Iowa negative 284.38 negative 29.85 384.95 

Ohio negative 77.12 negative 30.48 236.85 

West Virginia negative 118.12 negative 36.64 82.26 

Washington negative 157.70 negative 42.24 108.84 

Nebraska negative negative negative 74.44 negative 

Kentucky negative negative negative 86.80 negative 

DC negative negative negative negative negative 

Maine negative negative negative negative negative 

Maryland negative negative negative negative negative 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 55 Hotel and Casino Market Review 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table A7 Hotel Market CHP Economic Screening Results 

States MW of Economic CHP Potential

Econ. Potential 

Highest to 

Lowest 

100­

199 200-499 

500­

999 1000-1999 

2000 

+ 

Total 

(MW) 

Hawaii 1 16 19 25 10 71 

Alaska 2 4 2 8 

New 

Hampshire 3 5 8 

Connecticut 8 8 1 5 21 

Rhode Island 2 5 6 

Vermont 3 2 5 10 

Massachusetts 12 27 5 5 49 

California 50 121 49 55 276 

New Jersey 13 22 9 25 10 80 

Nevada 5 23 29 100 230 387 

Louisiana 11 21 9 20 61 

New York 20 38 27 40 125 

Texas 79 20 30 129 

Florida 110 40 150 

Michigan 5 5 

Arizona 

New Mexico 

Minnesota 

Tennessee 

Colorado Not 10 10 

North Dakota 

Economi 

c 

Mississippi 25 25 

Pennsylvania 5 5 

Delaware 

Georgia 25 25 

Wisconsin 

North Carolina 5 5 

All other states 

U.S. Total 130 371 170 495 290 1,456 

High Return 

Total 30 233 85 310 250 908 

Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. 56 Hotel and Casino Market Review