Denmark’s Danica Pension backs rooftop solar power retrofit project

Danica Pension, the DKK324bn (€43.4bn) pension provider owned by Danske Bank, has committed several million kroner to a project that will install 6MW of solar panels at eight at eight shopping centres it owns in Denmark.

GreenGo Energy, a Danish renewables firm, will install and monitor the panels on behalf of Danica, one of the largest pension providers in Denmark.

In the project’s first phase, GreenGo is affixing solar panels with 2.4MW of capacity to the rooftops of four Danica shopping centres. According to Danica, its centre in Kolding will have a photovoltaic (PV) capacity of 1.4MW alone, or more than twice as more as the largest facility built previously in the Nordics.

The project’s second phase begins later this spring, with GreenGo installing another 3.6MW of PV capacity at four more retail centres. The solar capacity at the scheme’s “City2” centre in Copenhagen will, at 2.2MW, even exceed that of Kolding.
“In cooperation with GreenGo Energy, we have achieved a solution that will provide good returns and significant energy benefits, all for the sake of our pension clientsand the environment,” said Peter Mering, Danica’s property director.

Including the current project, Danica aims to reduce the carbon emissions from its property portfolio by 200,000 tonnes. Mering did not, however, quantify the return that the scheme would get from the solar-powered properties. According to Danica’s last annual report, the scheme’s total property portfolio returned 2.8% in 2012, down from 6.2% in 2011.

Once Danica’s eight shopping centres are retrofitted with solar panels, GreenGo said they would not produce any more power than they consume. “The project thus requires no subsidies from the state and likewise there is no income loss for the state stemming from electricity and other related taxes,” said Karsten Nielsen, GreenGo’s chief executive.

Denmark has already 200MW of PV capacity in place. By 2020, the government aims to increase that amount four-fold. However, wind power is by far the country’s most important source of renewable energy, with just under 4800MW of capacity installed. Link