South Africa’s largest specialised shopping centre Real Estate Investment Trust(REIT) Hyprop is expanding its solar project across 66 % of its South African shopping mall portfolio, a move which CEO Morné Wilken says will greatly reduce its carbon footprint.
The solar expansion, Mr Wilken said, is also part of the company’s wider plan to create safe environments and spaces where people can connect and be part of a community.
“One of our key focus areas is to reduce the consumption of natural resources where possible. The installation of solar, a renewable energy source, is only part of our drive towards positive change in creating safe environments and spaces where people can connect and be part of a community,” said Wilken.
At completion, six of the company’s nine malls will be making use of solar power.
The roll-out of solar throughout most of the portfolio will also mitigate the risk of continuous, rising electricity costs for the company.
Hyprop’s first implementation at Clearwater Mall for instance, proved highly successful and generates 2.91MW of power at peak. This project was done in three phases with final completion in 2017.
The electrical power generated by the solar system is fed back into the centre grid and consumed in total, we are planning a fourth phase which we will implement after the necessary approval by NERSA.
Hyprop is currently busy with installation at Rosebank Mall, Woodlands, Atterbury Value Mart, Hyde Park Corner and The Glen. The work on these buildings are divided into two phases with additional solar to be installed at Clearwater Mall as part of phase four.
Phase one consists of a 1-megawatt AC system at Atterbury Value Centre, Woodlands, The Glen and Rosebank Mall while the Hyde Park Corner site only allows for a 384 Kw installation to be completed in one phase.
All projects are rolled out by Solareff at a total cost budgeted of R 68 775 435. The generation of 9 918 000 Kw/h will result in an annual saving circa R 15,9 million across the portfolio.
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