Sembcorp to install and operate solar farms atop six CapitaLand properties

It is expected to produce over 10,200MW-hours of power annually.

Singapore's Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp) is teaming up with CapitaLand Group to install and operate six rooftop solar farms at properties in Singapore owned by CapitaLand, an announcement revealed.

As part of the partnership, Sembcorp will install, own and operate rooftop solar panels with a combined capacity of approximately 8.1MWp, atop CapitaLand buildings located in the Changi, Senoko, Penjuru and Ang Mo Kio districts. The properties are held under CapitaLand’s business space and industrial real estate investment trust (REIT), Ascendas REIT.

More than 21,000 solar panels will be installed, providing renewable energy and significantly lowering CapitaLand’s carbon footprint. Any surplus solar power generated will be channelled to the grid.

When completed, CapitaLand will house Singapore’s largest combined rooftop solar farm by a real estate company. Upon full installation of the solar energy system at the end of 2019, it is expected to produce over 10,200MW-hours of power annually. This is said to be equivalent to powering about 2,300 four-room HDB flats for a year.

The solar energy system will also help avoid over 4.3 million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, equivalent to taking around 937 cars off the road or planting over 52,000 trees.

According to Koh Chiap Khiong, Sembcorp’s head of Singapore, Southeast Asia & China (Energy), the new project will aid Singapore’s goal of reaching its target of 350MWp of solar capacity by 2020.

In another move to dovetail its sustainability efforts with its cost of funding, CapitaLand has also signed new sustainability-linked loans with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, Natixis Bank and Societe Generale to raise a total of $300m. The five-year multicurrency sustainability-linked loans will see interest rates reduced based on CapitaLand’s achievements of environmental, social and governance metrics.

"We are also exploring the use of renewable energy certificates resulting from the excess energy generated by the solar panels installed at the six properties to offset the carbon emissions from CapitaLand’s corporate operations at its Singapore headquarters in Capital Tower and Galaxis. We will further review opportunities within our enlarged global portfolio to deploy clean energy technologies to power our real estate operations," Lynette Leong, chief sustainability ffficer for CapitaLand Group, highlighted.