Sitari Village Mall and its anchor tenant, Checkers, located close to Somerset West in Cape Town, has become South Africa’s first premium shopping centre to run entirely off renewable energy from wind and solar sources as a result of a 635kWp rooftop solar PV installation and an agreement with Eskom’s Renewable Energy Tariff (RET) programme, which allows consumers to source up to 100% of their electricity from renewable resources.
The Sitari Village Mall, owned by Shoprite and which forms part of Amdec’s Sitari Country Estate, will generate 35% of its electricity from its rooftop solar PV system. The remaining 65% (1 752 MWh of renewable energy) will be sourced from Eskom’s wind plant via the RET programme – enough to power the entire centre.
“The commitment to renewable energy is part of Checkers’ wider climate change strategy, which acknowledges that climate change will, directly and indirectly, impact our business and the communities we are a part of. Therefore, we commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, continuously improve energy efficiency, and strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of our operations and that of our communities”, commented Shoprite Group Sustainability Manager, Sanjeev Raghubir.
Last year, the Shoprite Group doubled its solar capacity and announced its intention to power 25% of operations with renewable energy.
The group has committed to procuring 434 000 MWh of renewable energy a year from a specialist energy trader through its renewable energy procurement project, the first of its kind in Africa.
