GPT rolls out renewables to its buying centres with a “good power hub” at Chirnside Park

The GPT Group is partnering with Shell Power to show its Chirnside Park retail centre into its first Local weather Energetic carbon impartial licensed buying centre, as each the corporate and the broader buying centre business more and more embraces sustainability.

The corporate claims the “good power hub” mission – the primary to be rolled out at one in all its centres – will result in a 50 per enchancment in power effectivity. It is going to additionally embody a swap to renewable electrical energy and offsets for its residual emissions.

As a part of the improve, the corporate will set up a 2 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery coupled with a 650 kilowatt (kW) photo voltaic array. The array is predicted to avoid wasting greater than 800,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power per yr – equal to the power use of round 350 houses. 

The corporate can even use a requirement administration program, known as Loadflex, to reward tenants for reducing their power use in peak occasions. It claims the usage of this predictive know-how will allow peak masses to be lowered by as much as 70 per cent, resulting in decrease complete power prices.

The Victorian Authorities is supporting the mission by offering a $500,000 grant to pilot the battery.

The medium-sized 39,100 sq. metre regional buying centre has 117 tenants, together with two low cost shops, three supermarkets and an eight-screen Studying Cinema.

It’s positioned alongside the Maroondah Freeway within the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, round 30 kilometres northeast of the Melbourne CBD, between the suburbs of Croydon and Lilydale.

A part of an even bigger business pattern: greener malls

Up to now, Australia’s buying centre business has come below criticism from sustainability advocates for its excessive degree of automotive dependence, excessive power use for cooling, and reluctance to embrace sustainability requirements akin to NABERS.

However the sector now seems to be turning a nook, with a number of the largest gamers more and more embracing sustainability initiatives.

Lately, Scentre Group signed a deal to make use of renewable energy at its Westfield centres in Queensland, via a take care of state-owned power firm CleanCo. It additionally generated 7931 MWh final yr from its photo voltaic installations at its Carousel, Coomera, Kotara, Marion and Loads Valley malls.

Vicinity group is taking it a step further, unveiling plans to redevelop its Field Hill Central buying complicated in Melbourne’s east right into a high-density transit-oriented mixed-use precinct, that includes Inexperienced Star rated buildings.

The city regeneration plan will see Field Hill Central remodeled over the subsequent 10 years right into a 5.5 hectares mixed-use and retail precinct, together with workplace area for 6000 staff and 3800 residences for residents by 2030. 

GPT pushing forwards in the direction of internet zero

The Chirnside Park improve is a part of a broader push by GPT to realize internet zero throughout its portfolio of managed property by 2024, which it first announced back in 2020. The technique consists of an power grasp plan, which covers its demand response and administration.

The corporate’s retail sustainability push is important as a result of its portfolio consists of a few of Melbourne’s largest buying centres, together with Highpoint, Melbourne Central, and Northland, together with the smaller Parkmore regional buying centre close to Dandenong.

Its retail portfolio additionally consists of numerous centres throughout NSW and Queensland, together with Westfield Penrith, Rouse Hill City Centre, Macarthur Sq. (in Campbelltown), Charlestown Sq. (south of Newcastle), and Sunshine Plaza (on the Sunshine Coast).

GPT’s chief government officer Bob Johnston mentioned: “The adoption of the good power hub strategy, wherever possible throughout the GPT portfolio, will catch the attention of the group and can obtain each improved environmental outcomes and improve the resilience of the electrical energy grid, to additionally profit the broader group.”