Broadway Fair Shopping Centre in Crawley is now home to WA’s largest rooftop solar array. The 312 kW system is expected to provide more than 30 per cent of the shopping centre’s electricity usage.
The solar PV system consists of 948 solar panels and will generate enough clean electricity to power 70 homes. Supplied by SunEdison and installed by Infinite Energy, the system was prompted by a re-roofing project that saw the shopping centre’s entire roof being replaced.
The system used the following equipment:
- Australian-designed and made SunLock Solar framing system
- 948 high efficiency Ben Q 330 W solar panels
- Fronius inverters
- around 6 km of wiring.
The projected annual output of the system will be almost 500,000 kWh.
Broadway Fair announced its plans to install the system over a year ago, after consultations with the Energy Matters, which was acquired by SunEdison in September 2014.
Paul Avon-Smith, General Manager of Broadway Fair, said the centre was looking for a solution to grow income and provide a buffer against escalating costs.
“SunEdison and Infinite Energy presented us with a solar solution that made strong economic sense with the environmental benefits of reduced carbon emissions being a nice bonus,” Mr Avon-Smith said.
Nick Brass, SunEdison’s Head of Commercial and Industrial Sales, welcomed the fact that Broadway’s customers and tenancies had caught on to the message that clean energy makes “real and immediate economic sense”.
“People are catching on in a big way that solar is not only good for the environment, but translates into real cost savings.”
WA Minister for Energy Mike Nahan will officially launch the system on 3 March.