Harrods, the Qatari-owned luxury retailer, has gained consent to add solar photovoltaic electricity panels across the entire 236,000-square-foot span of the roof at its South East distribution centre in Thatcham, underlining a growing commitment by occupiers and landlords to use warehouse roofs to drive major renewable energy gains across the UK.
The UK's warehouses have been improving their energy efficiency through improved lighting, electrification of material handling and system efficiency but a survey from the UK Warehousing Association last year found rooftop solar projects have been much less popular, mainly because of the prohibitive upfront cost.
The UKWA report found that warehousing comprises a third of all commercial roof space in the UK and could generate up to 15GW of new solar, which would double the UK’s solar PV capacity. But it found investment costs, low electricity demand and grid connections are the main barriers, and a culture shift is required to develop larger installations.
A report by Gerald Eve today found a clear shift in occupier attitudes to more sustainable warehouses. Because it has a high concentration of some of the most energy-efficient logistics stock in the UK, the Midlands has accounted for 48% of all UK take-up, it said.
Harrods has gained consent from West Berkshire council to add a solar array across the full area of the roof at its 334,000-square-foot distribution hub on Colthrop Lane in Thatcham, which it owns.
Harrods estimates a 1,600 kilowatt peak solar array could be installed with battery storage units to allow any excess power to be used to charge the batteries during the day, with the stored energy to be used at night. Eighty-five of the power would be consumed on site, while 15% would be exported during summer days.
The PV installation cost is £2.56 million, which it is estimated would pay back within 11 years. There would be a carbon saving of 230,000Kg/carbon dioxide per annum and a total return over 25 years of £3.65 million. The project costs is £3.442 million with an internal rate of return of 8.5%. Another factor is there will be no visual impact on the surrounding landscape as the warehouse roof has a parapet to the entire perimeter.
Neil Seager, managing partner at Haslams, said: “It is obvious that industrial landlords and occupiers will increasingly focus on this for sustainability reasons – it is critical for the UK’s net zero targets – but the cost for a significant amount of PV is often prohibitive. When supply increases again though it will really become an increasing trend.”
Qatar Holding bought Harrods for £1.5 billion in 2010. That year it sold its Osterley campus to BskyB and then bought the new state-of-the-art warehouse in Thatcham from British Land in 2011. At a similar time it bought a site on Hammersmith Road in West London to house office staff nearer to its Knightsbridge store.
The Thatcham warehouse distributes all of Harrods' stock to the Knightsbridge store and airport locations.