Supermarket giant shows how it is done: Solar boost also cuts its costs

The Shoprite Group has increased solar capacity by 82% in a year, easing pressure on the constrained national electricity grid which has seen the country plunged into prolonged power outages.

Its 143,674m² of solar panels at 62 sites is equivalent to the size of 20 soccer fields. This is enough to power 3,735 households for one full year, the supermarket giant said.

In the past financial year, the group said its total renewable installations produce 40,894MWh, or 11,614MWh more than in November last year. At the same time, it has increased its fleet of solar-powered trailers by 234 to a total of 1,041.

Other initiatives include a drive to reduce electricity consumption by installing LED lights at its sites, which uhas saved 399-million kWh to date.

“We are incredibly proud of our increased use of renewable electricity, and we intend to build on this in the coming years to meet our science-based emission reduction targets, including net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” said Sanjeev Raghubir, group sustainability manager.

“We’ve saved more than R16m in electricity costs in the past year through our solar PV systems and these additional savings are passed on to our customers.”

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