SM Supermalls completed new solar rooftop projects this month in three malls—SM City Cauayan, SM City Cabanatuan and SM City Iloilo—in its quest to deliver clean and cheaper power to its shopping stores nationwide.
SM is slated to launch in the coming months five more solar powered malls in SM City Trece Martires, SM Seaside City Cebu, SM City Dasmariñas, SM City Olongapo and the upcoming SM City Tuguegarao Downtown.
The company said SM by the end of this phase will have approximately 33,000 solar panels capable of producing 8.9 megawatts of electricity—enough to fully charge around 1.3 million cellphones, light up 890,000 10-watt LED lamps and run 297,000 30-watt electric fans, or provide power to almost 6,000 households.
“SM Prime has always been committed to reduce greenhouse emissions and maximize energy efficiency in our malls. This is just one of the many renewable projects we have been doing and we will continue with finding ways on how to make our operations more environmentally sound and sustainable,” said SM Prime Holdings Inc. executive committee chairman Hans Sy during a signing ceremony with Solar Philippines.
As SM’s partner in promoting eco-friendly shopping in the country, Solar Philippines is the largest developer of solar rooftop power plants in Southeast Asia.
The rooftop format uses previously unused space that now provides “green” roofs for the malls.
SM launched its first solar rooftop project in the country at SM City North Edsa, the first mall in the Philippines to become solar powered in 2014.
SM Mall of Asia followed in 2016 with the inauguration of a solar power facility with twice the capacity of the former’s rooftop installation.
SM Mall of Asia put up a 2.7-MW solar power facility almost twice the capacity of SM City North Edsa’s 1.5-MW solar rooftop installation.