Western Cape shopping mall gets R50 million solar-battery system

Growthpoint Properties is piloting a R50 million 4.5MW battery system at Paarl Mall in the Western Cape.

According to the company, this marks the largest commercial battery installation in South Africa to date. The battery system will be partly charged by Paarl Mall’s new rooftop solar PV plant.

The property developer has been implementing sustainable energy solutions for over a decade with 13.5MW of solar power across its South African portfolio.

“Battery technology has come a long way in recent years. Previously prohibitively expensive, batteries have become increasingly affordable, especially considering rapidly rising electricity prices and our imperative to help prevent costly business disruptions for our clients caused by load-shedding,” said Grahame Cruickshanks, the head of sustainability and utilities at Growthpoint.

The Paarl Mall, despite substantial energy savings, was set to have an electricity bill of over R5 million a year because the mall’s decreased load factor meant it only qualified for a more expensive municipal energy tariff.

As a result, Growthpoint needed to tailor a new solution to provide green energy to the entire mall while ensuring a consistent power supply and optimising energy costs.

Greenpoint said that the solar-battery system is set to be fully operational by mid-December and will:

• Be big enough to cover 3.5 football fields;
• Reduce the mall’s carbon emissions by 3,601,500 tonnes of CO2 each year – the equivalent of taking 2,800 cars off South African roads each year, and;
• Last for 15 years.

“Boasting more than 5,000 PV panels with a direct current capacity of 2.5 megawatts-peak (MWp) and generating 3,601,500 kilowatt hours (KWh) of energy annually, Paarl Mall’s new rooftop solar plant will span a massive 25,000sqm,” said Greenpoint.

Its sealed-container 4.5MW battery bank battery system, comprising three 20-foot containers with lithium-ion batteries, will be charged from both the mall’s solar power and the grid, added the property giant.

“Proving the concept and technology would provide a big push in the right direction towards our carbon reduction targets.”

“We are hoping to onboard more malls with this solution to future-proof our assets, protect them from load-shedding and optimise energy costs,” said Neil Schloss, Growthpoint’s head of asset management.

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