The country’s fresh produce retailer has successfully been running a solar project at its City Deep DC in Johannesburg for the last five years to elevate its reliance on Eskom-supplied electricity to the facility.

Now, it is increasing the solar generation capacity of that facility and also converting its Brackengate and Centurion Distribution Centres to solar energy, giving it a cumulative saving of 6,000 tonnes of CO² per annum as well as saving a third of its electricity consumption from Eskom.

Multi-million rand investment in renewable energy

“We aim to be the best store in every community we serve. To be a responsible neighbour in these communities means that we have to live our sustainability values in every store and Distribution Centre,” says Paul Fouché, Food Lover’s Market commercial director.

To that end, whenever we design a new store, we look at ways to include energy-saving elements “such as energy-efficient LED lights in the building design, sustainable ways to conserve water, and ways to heat or cool down our stores in an energy-efficient way,” he explains.

“As a result, we’ve made a multi-million-rand investment in renewable energy by using solar power to supplement electricity at our head office DCs and certain stores, which is set to offset up 30% of our annual energy needs on these sites,” he adds.

Warehouses and DCs typically consume large amounts of electricity in the course of day-to-day operations.

Given the energy use in these buildings and the current energy crisis in South Africa, as well as the importance of achieving sustainability goals, there is growing interest to meet electricity demand with clean, renewable energy. Solar energy is not only better for the environment, but can cut energy costs in the business significantly.

“The solar panels at our distribution centres typically provide around 400 to 400 MWh of electricity each year – which amounts to an energy saving of up to 30%, which is a significant reduction in energy consumption,” says Fouché.

Courtesy of Bizcommunity – read full article here.