Vicinity Centres has unveiled a further $50 million investment into solar and technologies across an additional 17 shopping centres nationally, in an effort to offset the energy demand created by its centres.

This initiative will create the largest property solar program in the country in scale and investment, and will comparably rank among the top 10 biggest corporate solar projects in the US.

“We know our centres have a considerable footprint in our communities which is why we’ve committed more than $75 million towards stage one and stage two of our solar project,” Vicinity executive general manager of shopping centre management Justin Mills said.

“This investment will generate clean power for our centres for the long term, make a positive environmental impact and deliver shared value for our customers, retailers and investors.”

The investment is expected to reduce the group’s consumption from the national electricity grid by 40 per cent, and will create at least 300 highly-skilled jobs during the implementation of the second stage with a further 40 permanent positions to be available once the project is completed.

The expected project completion date of late 2019 will see the equivalent of 191 kilometres of solar panels laid end to end installed, across a total of 22 sites, generating approximately 48,500 MWhs annually – enough to power over 8,000 houses for the year.

“We’re committed to energy leadership targeting renewable energy, combined with battery and other storage technology and creating efficiencies across our portfolio, as part of Vicinity’s Integrated Energy Strategy,” Mills continued.

“The program supports out focus to create sustainable, market leading shopping, dining and entertainment destinations.”

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