SM lines up 20 more malls for rooftop solar installations

MANILA, Philippines — Integrated property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. is powering up more SM shopping centers nationwide with solar energy, with plans to install rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in 20 malls next year.

“Currently, 48 of our 88 malls are already with solar panels. For next year, we should be including another 20 on the list. So little by little we’ll get there,” SM Supermalls president Steven Tan said.

He said one of the challenges for solar PV installation in the group’s older malls is that the roofing has to accommodate the weight of the solar panels.

“But as we renovate, as we redevelop our malls, that’s an opportunity for us to put in the solar panels. We will be including that as part of our redevelopment,” he said.

Last July, SM Supermalls unveiled the largest rooftop solar PV system on a commercial building in the country at SM City Fairview with a 3.79-megawatt peak solar power capacity.

SM City Fairview’s solar PV system has an average annual solar production of up to 5,960-megawatt-hour, capable of powering 11 percent of the mall’s annual energy consumption.

Further, it prevents the release of 4,133 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with every year of operations, strengthening SM’s commitment toward environmental sustainability and corporate resilience.

Tan, however, said SM City Fairview’s title of having the biggest rooftop solar panel system may soon be eclipsed with a larger installation in the works at SM North EDSA.

SM North EDSA was the first Philippine mall to have a rooftop solar PV installation in 2014 with a 1.5-megawatt peak capacity.

“This September, I think we will still be launching a bigger one. That’s good news for everyone. North EDSA would be the title holder as the biggest as we launch more than four megawatt-peak for our solar panels,” Tan said.

“There’s a target that by the end of the year, we should reach 100 megawatt-peak for the total for all SM Supermalls in the country,” he said.

SM Supermalls, the country’s largest mall developer, is continuously evolving to lead the way in sustainable development by integrating green design, energy efficiency, disaster resilience and environmental stewardship into its network of malls nationwide.

Its solar PV system installations contribute to SM Prime’s Net Zero 2040 goal toward a significant reduction of the company’s total carbon footprint.