A shopping centre in Leeds is now home to the largest solar installation of its kind in the UK, thanks to a partnership between its owners Landsec and clean energy consultancy Syzygy.
The two firms teamed up to install 2,900 solar PV panels on the roof of the White Rose shopping centre in Leeds to create the largest solar installation at a retail site in the UK.
Unveiled today, the system is expected to meet almost 40 per cent of the shopping centre’s daytime electricity demand in the mall areas. It will also save 250 tonnes of carbon emissions each year for Landsec – the property giant formerly known as Land Securities – the equivalent of more than half a million miles of passenger car emissions.
“We are extremely proud to have set a UK-wide benchmark for renewable electricity,” Scott Parsons, managing director at Retail Landsec, said in a statement.
“Landsec is committed to setting and achieving sustainability targets and this is a fantastic example of how innovate thinking can benefit both retailers and the environment’.”
Landsec is the UK’s largest listed commercial property company, with 23.2 million square foot of retail space and a property portfolio worth more than £14bn, including 20 Fenchurch Street – the ‘Walkie Talkie’ tower – and the Piccadilly lights.
Currently nine of its assets have PV installations and last year the firm switched to using 100 per cent renewable electricity as part of a company-wide sustainability push.
The firm also secured approval for its emissions reduction targets from the Science-Based Targets Initiative earlier this year, after pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 per cent per square metre by 2030, against a 2014 base-year.
Source: businessgreen.com
