- Germany’s Schwarz Group says it plans to grow its self-consumption solar power capacity for its retail stores to around 700 MW
- It is already using 100% renewable electricity for its operations since FY 2022 start, and wants to expand further
- The additional capacity is to come from around 3,700 new solar PV systems to be installed by 2025
Germany’s Schwarz Group, owner of discount retail chain Lidl and hypermarket stores Kaufland, aims to grow its self-consumption solar power capacity for its operations to around 700 MW by the year 2025.
This would translate into close to 3,700 new solar PV systems to be installed on the group’s buildings, including more than 1,600 systems within Germany. It would take the company’s cumulative solar power capacity for self-consumption to around 700 MW in the form of around 5,000 PV systems.
The company has been sourcing all of its electricity since the beginning of FY 2022 from renewable energies, except for individual rental properties with power purchase agreements (PPA). It now wants to expand the capacity further.
In 2020, the group generated around 130 million kWh of clean energy from the installed systems, which was an improvement of 63% over the previous year.
With a renewables friendly government at federal level in Germany and record high electricity prices in Europe, the benefits of self-generated clean energy capacity are considered to provide a hedge against power prices translating into big cost savings.
