Retail First
Queensland, 2025
Client Name: Retail First Location: 5 sites across South East Queensland, Australia Project Completion: 2025 Expected Annual Solar Production: 4.4 GWh Estimated CO₂ Reduction: 2,805+ tonnes annually
Retail environments operate to fixed trading hours, high daytime demand, and constant customer activity. Any infrastructure upgrade must be carefully managed to avoid disrupting tenants, shoppers, and daily operations.
DS Energy partnered with Retail First to deliver a 3MW solar rollout across five shopping centres — Australia Fair (Main and Metro), Booval, Mt Gravatt, and Toowong. The portfolio-wide installation was carefully staged to maintain full operational continuity while transitioning the centres to renewable energy.
CHALLENGES
Installing solar across multiple busy shopping centres meant working in live environments where there is very little room for error.
Centres needed to continue trading. Tenants required uninterrupted access. Safety standards had to be maintained at all times.
The objective wasn’t simply to install panels at scale. Each system had to be carefully sized to align with site demand and maximise on-site energy consumption, particularly across assets with large daytime load requirements.
SOLUTION
DS Energy delivered a 3,049 kW portfolio-wide solar installation across five centres.
Each system was engineered to match the specific load profile of its site, ensuring optimal performance while maintaining a consistent technical standard across the portfolio.
Installation was staged to suit live retail environments, with temporary generation used during commissioning to ensure uninterrupted power throughout the transition.
RESULT
The combined systems are expected to generate approximately 4.46 GWh of renewable energy annually, delivering substantial operational and environmental benefits.
Estimated annual production by site:
Mt Gravatt: 672.1 MWh Toowong: 150 MWh Booval: 1.475 GWh Australia Fair Metro: 658.3 MWh Australia Fair Main: 1.510 GWh
Combined environmental benefit: 2,805.6 tonnes of CO₂ avoided annually
The result is reduced grid reliance, greater long-term cost certainty, and improved energy resilience across the portfolio.
This project demonstrates DS Energy’s capability to deliver complex, large-scale solar infrastructure within live retail environments, by combining engineering precision, staged execution, and operational continuity at scale.
Ready to explore what solar could unlock for your portfolio?
Check out some of our other solar projects, or contact DS Energy or discover how we can help power your business into the future.