CapitaLand is putting over 20,000 solar panels on 6 of its buildings – that’s enough power for 2,300 HDB flats a year
The combined solar panel facility installed atop the six properties will collectively generate more than 10,000 megawatt hours of energy every year.
Thousands of solar panels are slated to be installed atop six of CapitaLand’s Singapore properties by end 2019, forming what could potentially be the largest combined rooftop solar facility in the country by a real estate company.
In a statement released on Tuesday (July 9), CapitaLand announced a new partnership with Sembcorp Industries to install approximately 21,240 solar panels on six of its buildings, which will generate a total of 10,292 megawatt hours of energy every year – enough to power around 2,300 four-room Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats annually.
The six properties are:
- 1 Changi Business Park Avenue 1
- 9 Changi South Street 3
- 2 Senoko South Road
- 40 Penjuru Lane
- Techpoint
- LogisTech
The properties are held under CapitaLand’s business space and industrial real estate investment trust, Ascendas Reit.
The company’s upcoming combined rooftop solar facility will help to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 4.3 million kilogrammes each year, enabling its carbon footprint to be “significantly” lowered.
CapitaLand said that the move will help the company to advance its sustainability goals to generate at least 20 per cent energy consumption from renewable energy for its enlarged global portfolio by 2025.
Noting that no installation cost will be incurred, the initiative is a “good business case for sustainability”, according to the company.
CapitaLand Group’s chief sustainability officer, Lynette Leong, said the company’s recent integration with real estate holdings firm Ascendas-Singbridge allowed it to leverage a “wider network of properties to contribute meaningfully towards sustainability”.
Leong said: “We are also exploring the use of Renewable Energy Certificates resulting from the excess energy generated by the solar panels installed at the six properties to offset the carbon emissions from CapitaLand’s corporate operations at its Singapore headquarters in Capital Tower and Galaxis.”
She added that the company will continue to review opportunities within its enlarged global portfolio to introduce clean energy technologies to power its real estate operations.
For instance, CapitaLand’s global hospitality training centre in Singapore, the Ascott Centre for Excellence, is entirely powered by renewable energy and purchases electricity derived from renewable sources.
The company also said it has signed new sustainability-linked loans with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, Natixis bank and Societe Generale to raise a total of S$300 million (US$220 million) in an effort to match sustainability efforts with cost of funding.
According to CapitaLand, it has the flexibility to use the five-year multicurrency loans on green projects including installation of solar panels, as well as for general corporate purposes. Interest rates for the loans will also be reduced depending on the company’s environmental, social and governmental achievements.
The company added that it will be making “further efforts” to reduce its energy usage, water consumption and carbon emission and aims to have its carbon emission targets approved by the Science-based Targets Initiative.
Source: businessinsider.sg
