Perth gets two largest rooftop solar systems

Just days after formally opening the largest privately owned rooftop solar systems in Perth, another even bigger commercial rooftop solar system is to be built on a shopping centre in the WA capital,  marking a significant trend towards businesses installing solar to meet their energy needs in the sun-rich city.

Broadway Fair, owner of the Broadway Fair Shopping Centre in Crawley in Perth, says it will build the city’s largest privately owned commercial solar array – a 310kW system, just days after that record was established by the opening of a 290kW system at food service company Bidvest.

The Broadway array will provide over 30 per cent of centre’s usage and will be installed at the same time as a new roof on the centre over the next few months.

Paul Avon-Smith, general manager of Broadway Fair, said that centre management had been working in partnership with Energy Matters for over twelve months to implement the new array.

“The solar and reroofing project is currently being assessed by Subiaco council and Western Power – we look forward to making a start on the project in the next couple of months and expect the project to be complete well before summer,” he said.

The Bidvest array (pictured) installed on their distribution centre at Bibra Lake, will include 1,160 panels and generate around 360MWh of electricity a year, around 40 per cent of the centre’s requirements.

Up to 100 per cent of the site’s summer daytime base load will be met through solar.

The array, designed and installed by Energy Matters, was officially unveiled last week by Mike Nahan, Western Australia’s Treasurer and Minister for Energy.

“We estimate that the array will provide around 40 per cent of our annual electricity requirements at this site,” Bidvest Peter Crowe, general manager-marketing. “We are also delighted to have created the opportunity to supplement our electricity requirements utilising natural resources”.

Jeremy Rich, CEO of Energy Matters, said the Bidvest installation was one of the first “truly large-scale, privately funded and owned rooftop PV solar systems. We see this as the start of something big for commercial solar in Australia.”