Shoprite moves to get off the grid by increasing solar capacity

The Shoprite Group has been busy this past year with getting its business operations off Eskom’s unreliable national grid.

Shoprite growing its solar power grid

Over the past 12 months, the group increased its installed capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by 82% to 26 606 kWp. 

That’s 143 674m2 of solar panels at 62 sites, equivalent to the size of 20 soccer fields.  

“This is enough to power the equivalent of 3 735 households for one full year, thus easing the pressure on the national electricity grid,” said the group in a statement. 

Shoprite’s move off the grid includes LED light installation at its sites, which has saved 399 million kWh to date. 

Shoprite said it would focus on growing its solar-powered and renewable electricity installations to reduce strain on the national electricity grid. 

“Using renewable energy and embracing energy efficiency is part of the group’s plans to reduce indirect greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.”

Load shedding nightmare worsens

On Tuesday evening, the country’s power utility was plunged into a fresh crisis when a generation unit each at Kendal and Lethabo power stations tripped, forcing the parastatal to revert to stage 4 once again.

By Saturday, South Africans will have endured an entire month of continuous load shedding.

Eskom skirted very close to stage 7 during the peak at least once in the last month, on 19 September.

Various estimates have put the cost of load shedding to the economy at between R1.5 billion and R4 billion a day.

Shoprite forges ahead

In the last financial year, Shoprite increased its total renewable installations from 32 to 62, producing 40 894 MWh, 11 614 MWh more than in November last year.  

At the same time, increasing its fleet of solar-powered trailers by 234, to a total of 1 041.  

“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 Shoprite Group Sustainability Manager Sanjeev Raghubir.  

“Furthermore, we’ve saved more than R16 million in electricity costs in the past year through our solar PV systems, and these additional savings are passed on to our customers,” Raghubir concluded.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney, additional reporting by Moneyweb

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