Australia's largest solar panel installation

Sustainability is a big issue for our commercial and industrial tenant customers at Charter Hall. Energy is an increasing portion of their operating costs, so we work closely with them to deliver technologically advanced and efficient properties.

Sustainability makes environmental and financial sense, and we are proud to be Australia’s greenest landlord, with 178 Green Star-rated properties covering 3.5 million square metres of space – the largest Green Star-rated property portfolio in Australia.

Of those Star-rated properties, 81 are industrial, and we aim for a four-star rating or above, on new industrial projects.

Working with our tenants

Green technology is a big part of our development guidelines, and we are currently drafting a user guide to help tenants better incorporate it into their buildings.

Features such as energy efficient LED lighting with controls further reduce consumption, water-efficient amenities, rainwater tanks, solar hot water, skylights and, low-toxin interiors to enhance employee wellbeing are standard in our new buildings, with roof structures generally reinforced to cater for solar panels.

In our existing buildings we collect tenant customer energy data to evaluate projects such as solar potential and LED lighting upgrades, unlocking savings for tenants wherever possible.

Thinking big on solar

As energy costs rise so do the returns achievable from solar energy, and we recently installed Australia’s largest industrial solar power system at our new Woolworths distribution centre in Dandenong South.

With more than 120 tenancies across the group, Woolworths are a major tenant customer of ours and we are very focused on meeting their needs. We acquired the 16-hectare site in mid-2016 and worked closely with them as they developed the 70,000sqm facility.

With 3,800 panels producing 1MW of power, the solar power system on the facility’s 1.2-hectare roof will meet 20 percent of its energy needs and deliver a return on investment within five years.r

Collaborating with tenants

We recently completed another large (450kW) solar system at Laverton Cold Storage in Victoria, where we worked with the tenant to assess potential savings from solar and engaged an external consultant to tender out the project and analyse submissions.

Other Charter Hall properties where we have recently implemented solar include Schneider Electric at Gepps Cross South Australia (100kW), our East Arm Port Distribution facility in Darwin (100kW), Lion Dairy and Drinks at Chullora, NSW (600kW), and GWA at the M5/M7 Industrial Estate at Prestons, NSW (250kW).  

Collaborating with our tenant customers to cut costs and deliver healthy and productive working environments makes good sense both environmentally and commercially, and we are proud to be industry leaders in sustainability.

Woolworths Distribution Centre, Dandenong South Victoria

Click here to view our Industrial Portfolio.