By James A. Loyola

Robinsons Land Corporation (RLC), a subsidiary of JG Sumit Holdings Inc., is further increasing the solar power generation capacity of its malls as the dominant renewable energy generator among Philippine property developers.

To date, Robinsons Land has almost 48,000 rooftop solar panels in its 11 malls, most of which are outside Metro Manila, allowing it to produce over 15 million kilowatt hours (KWH) of clean energy annually.

RLC President Frederick D. Go explained that “as one of the biggest consumers of electricity, having our own renewable source of clean energy allows us to reduce our carbon footprint and do our share in protecting the environment by using less electricity produced through the burning of fossil fuels.”

The 15 million KWH produced by RLC’s rooftop solar panels would have resulted in the release of 10,674 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere if produced by thermal power plants. This would require the planting of over 276,000 trees to absorb this greenhouse gas.

On top of these, RLC is in the process of installing an additional 10,000 solar panels with a capacity of almost 4 million KWH that will save the environment from 2,784 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which would require the planting of over 72,000 trees.

This will boost RLC’s total to almost 58,000 solar panels wth a total solar power yield of over 19,000 million KWH per year powering 1,792 new homes for one year and the elimination of over 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

These new solar panels will be installed in RLC’s Robinsons Cybergate Cebu (65,236 KWH), Robinsons Galleria Cebu (1.31 million KWH), Robinsons Place Tagum (1.96 million KWH), and Robinsons Place Palawan (expansion of 3.96 million KWH).

Additional facilities are at the finalization stages and would soon see the light of day in Robinsons malls in Ilocos, Pangasinan, Santiago (Isabela), Naga, Antique (expansion), Tacloban (expansion), and General Santos City.

Go said that RLC is committed to install solar power facilities in all of its malls as a responsible corporate citizen conscious of the need for sustainable development.

Solar power facilities are already in operation in RLC malls in Palawan, Iloilo, Antique, Dumaguete, Roxas, Novaliches, Star Mills, Angeles, Tacloban, and Jaro as well as on the roof of Robinsons Cybergate Bacolod. The last three were commissioned in the last 12 months.

The facility installed in Robinsons Starmills is recognized as the largest mall rooftop solar power facility in the world. It consists of 10,880 solar panels with an annual yield of 3.2 million KWH.

RLC decided on solar power among other renewable energy sources since solar power facilities require very little maintenance.

Once installed and working at optimum conditions, only minimum work is required each year to ensure that it operates at full efficiency.

In addition, solar plants produce no emissions and are silent energy producers. No noise is generated by photovoltaic panels as they convert light into usable electricity.