Australia based retail asset management company Vicinity Centres have advised that they will spend $28m to install 11.2MW of solar power on top of five shopping centres in two states.
Vicinity Centres shopping centre solar project
The Vicinity Centres project will involve the installation of 39,000 solar panels across Castle Plaza, Elizabeth City Centre and Kurralta Park in South Australia and Ellenbrook Central and Currambine Central in Western Australia. The panels will be able to generate 17.4 GWh of electricity each year.
Vicinity chief executive Grant Kelley spoke about their reasons for starting up the project:
“The energy generated by the solar and battery systems will be used on site, reducing reliance on the grid and helping give our retailers and our business a buffer from a volatile energy market,” he said.
Shopping centres have seen quite a lot of private solar investment over the past year or so – the Stockland shopping centres have started work on a 12.3MW rollout of rooftop PV solar on their premises. The Stockland solar project is expected to generate around 17.2GWh of energy per annum and cost around $23.5 million to install their 39, 000 panels. Since they use such a massive amount of electricity it makes sense to insulate themselves from the seemingly inexorable electricity price hikes.
