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Meadowhall Invests £1 million in Sustainable Solar Panels

Leading fashion and lifestyle destination Meadowhall, has completed the largest solar panel installation on any UK shopping centre. The six-month project,  worth a total £1m investment, saw the installation of 3,418 solar panels onto the centre’s roof covering 60,000 sq ft, which can fill more than 20 tennis courts.

Helping to reduce the region’s carbon footprint, Meadowhall’s new solar panel installation will generate 770,000kWhs of solar energy a year, the equivalent to the electricity use of 230 average UK households. Furthermore, the annual CO2 saving will be the same as taking 175 cars off the road.

Darren Pearce, Centre Director at Meadowhall said “Meadowhall recently completed its largest transformation since it opened in 1990, through a £60m refurbishment. As part of our efforts to contribute positively to Sheffield socially, economically and environmentally, this transformation incorporated a series of green initiatives, including a full LED lighting scheme, natural ventilation and a solar installation covering almost all the roof space.

“Over the years, our environmental innovations have won a lot of recognition, but this solar installation is our highest profile green scheme yet. Not only does Meadowhall offer shoppers a wonderful day out, they can be comfortable in the knowledge that they’ve chosen to visit one of the greenest shopping centres in the country too.”

Meadowhall is British Land’s third shopping centre to be installed with solar panels, helping to make its portfolio of shopping centres more sustainable. This solar installation is the latest in a series of pioneering environmental innovations at Meadowhall. The shopping centre became the first in the UK to open its own on-site recycling facility in 2004, the first UK shopping centre to install electric car charging points in 2008 and its pioneering borehole and rainwater harvesting system saved 11 million litres of mains water last year. Efficiency improvements have cut energy use in the centre by 51% since 2009 and it hopes to make many more improvements in the future.

Last updated Friday 14 July, 2023