Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center has fully activated a rooftop solar installation spanning approximately 3.5 acres atop its convention center in National Harbor, Maryland — one of the largest such deployments at a U.S. hospitality property. The system's 4,696 panels are projected to generate nearly 3.4 million kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity annually and offset up to 50 percent of the electricity the resort purchases from the local utility.
The array went live in June 2026 and has already generated approximately 495,316 kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity, avoiding an estimated 333 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in its first months of operation. At full annual capacity, the system is projected to avoid 2,285 metric tons of CO2 per year — equivalent, by EPA methodology, to powering roughly 331 average U.S. homes.
The Integrated Energy Play
Ryman Hospitality Properties, the resort's owner, developed the project in partnership with solar developer REV Energy Ventures. The installation layers on top of an existing combined heat and power (Cogen) system that has been operational since 2018 and already meets more than 75 percent of the resort's energy needs by generating electricity while repurposing waste heat for building heating. Together, the two systems give operators at this large convention property significant on-site generation capacity and measurably reduced exposure to grid pricing volatility.
"By generating electricity on-site, capturing thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted and continuously monitoring our building systems, we are able to operate more efficiently," said Derek Brauner, director of engineering at Gaylord National. "The solar array is another important component of a broader resort-wide strategy focused on energy efficiency, resource conservation and long-term sustainability."
Mark Fioravanti, President and CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties, framed the investment in shareholder terms as well as environmental ones, noting the project reduces demand on the local power grid while improving operational efficiency and strengthening the resort's climate resiliency.
Convention-Scale Sustainability
For hospitality operators managing large-footprint properties — convention hotels, full-service resorts, and event-driven venues — the Gaylord National model illustrates how layered energy systems can deliver both cost and carbon benefits at scale. The solar array supplies up to 20 percent of the resort's electrical load during peak production, a meaningful contribution for a property offering nearly 2,000 guest rooms and 600,000 square feet of meeting space.
Beyond energy, the resort's broader sustainability program includes a partnership with the Food Recovery Network that has yielded more than 115,000 pounds of donated surplus prepared food to date, supporting approximately 30,000 meals annually for local hunger-fighting organizations. Additional programs cover single-stream recycling, elimination of single-use toiletry bottles, recycling of up to 170,000 pounds of cardboard monthly, rooftop beehives, and an on-site herb garden — the kind of hospitality sustainability programming that increasingly influences group booking decisions.
The project was managed by Marriott International, which operates Gaylord National and counts the installation toward its own corporate sustainability targets. As meeting planners and corporate accounts intensify scrutiny of venue environmental credentials, large convention properties investing in verifiable on-site renewables gain a concrete differentiator in the group business market — a trend our hospitality industry coverage has tracked across the sector.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
