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The owner of Mdantsane City and Gumgulethu Square plans to build more solar farms to power its malls and reduce its reliance on Eskom's power by another 5% by the end of March 2023.
Vukile Property Fund said it has concluded a green loan agreement of R200 million with Nedbank, which will help it double its electricity consumption from clean energy sources over the next three years.
The loan will fund 19 solar energy projects and the group's other energy-efficiency initiatives across South Africa.
These include seven recently installed solar energy projects which cost Vukile R60 million. Another eight solar farm installations are under way or will soon commence. A further four solar projects are planned for the future. All these will be completed in the next 36 months.
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"This funding will be dedicated to new on-site solar farms at retail property assets, supporting their energy-efficient and cost-efficient operations, and helping to meet the needs of our retailer tenants and shopping centres' customers while reducing climate impact," said Vukile Property Fund Laurence Rapp.
Vukile already has installed 14.2 megawatt peak (MWp) of solar PV power installed through 21 different projects in its properties. Those solar projects now provide 10% of the electricity used across Vukile's properties.
The additional 7.4 MWp planned to come on stream before the end of March 2023 will create an additional 5% capacity to power Vukile's properties.
The company began installing PV plants across its properties in 2016. It achieved its original internal goal of producing 8% of its electricity needs for the southern African portfolio from renewable energies in 2021.
Part of the motivation to generate more power from solar projects was the growing cost and unreliability of electricity in SA. In the 2021 financial year, Vukile said electricity costs contributed 42% to total operating expenses, its largest expense item. Increasing its solar energy capacity curbed this cost by 110 basis points.
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