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Solar power for our shops and central buildings
30
May
2020
Our shops’ opening hours correspond well with the hours that the sun shines. That’s not only handy when you come to shop with us, it's also practical for our energy supply. Wherever it’s appropriate, we can use self-generated solar power to provide our shops with electricity. Solar panels produce most energy during the day when demand for electricity is also the greatest. And of course, they don't emit any CO₂.
Towards 80 installations and more
Colruyt Group currently owns and manages 79 installations: 14 on distribution centres and 65 on Bio-Planet, Colruyt Lowest Prices and OKay shops. The solar panels generated 7,550 MWh in 2019, the equivalent of the annual energy consumption of 2,157 households. We will further expand the number of installations in the future.
In addition to solar energy, we also use other technologies to produce green energy:
We base the number of solar panels on the building’s energy consumption
Matching production to demand
Our energy specialists have made a conscious decision not to install solar panels just anywhere. For example, sometimes the roof construction of some buildings is not suitable for the installation.
Before we install a single solar panel, we analyse how much energy the building needs. So we always investigate whether the solar panels are technically and economically feasible. We do this because the electricity consumed on site becomes cost-efficient. This means that we never install more solar panels than we need to cover the site’s energy requirements. So on sunny days, the shops can run almost entirely on solar power. Another advantage is that we need to transmit the minimum possible surplus energy to the grid.
With this initiative, we contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
