Loblaw has been tracking its energy consumption and carbon emissions since 2011, Vice President of Building Technology and Energy Tom Marson says.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T is installing what is set to be Canada’s largest rooftop solar-power array at a new distribution centre north of Toronto, a move the country’s top retailer says will reduce its demand for power from the Ontario grid and help meet its net-zero emissions target.
The panels will cover about 40,400 square metres atop Loblaw’s East Gwillimbury Distribution Centre, an area roughly equal to five CFL football fields.
The 7.5 megawatt project, announced Tuesday, is expected to be completed in 2026 at a cost of more than $10-million. It will generate 8.5 million kilowatt hours a year, providing a quarter of the power for the highly automated distribution centre, the company’s largest.
Loblaw said it had planned to take advantage of the vast rooftop to generate power from the time construction began three years ago. The centre was completed this year.
Toronto-based Great Circle Solar Management Corp. will build, own and operate the project. Loblaw will buy the electricity under a long-term power purchase arrangement. It will supply power to the building primarily, which classifies it as a “behind-the-meter” electricity source.
The two companies have partnered on dozens of rooftop solar projects over the past decade.
Loblaw’s distribution centre in East Gwillimbury, Ontario. The solar array, expected to be fully set up in 2026, will generate 8.5 million kilowatt hours a year, providing a quarter of the power for the distribution centre.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The distribution centre is highly energy-intensive, with major automation and refrigeration facilities along with lighting and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, said Tom Marson, vice-president of building technology and energy for Loblaw, in an interview.
Installing the solar array is “an incremental step in the right direction,” he said.
Mr. Marson added: “We’re highly dependent on electricity and having resilient grids, making sure that the refrigeration is working and that we can serve the communities that we’re in. So we take grid resilience and the health of the grids where we operate very seriously.”
Loblaw has been tracking its energy consumption and carbon emissions since 2011, Mr. Marson said. It has set a target to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040. Scope 1 represents emissions from its distribution centres and stores, and Scope 2 from the energy it buys.
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Besides providing clean power, the project guarantees stable pricing for a sizable portion of Loblaw’s needs at the site, said Clarke Herring, chief executive officer of Great Circle Solar. The company builds and operates rooftop and utility-scale solar and battery storage projects in numerous locations in North America.
Mr. Herring in an interview called it a “marquee transaction” for both companies.
“What we like about it is, it’s an on-site clean fiscal hedge for [Loblaw] in a centralized energy system in Ontario, where we have a lot of demand coming at us.”
The two companies said they plan to keep looking for more opportunities to join forces on solar developments.