Rooftop solar and battery system provide blueprint for all-electric supermarket

A new Coles supermarket in Melbourne’s outer suburbs has been fitted with rooftop solar, battery energy storage, electric heat pumps, and fast-charging facilities for electric vehicles (EVs), enabling it to operate without onsite fossil fuels and reducing reliance on the grid.

The supermarket, at Orana Village in Clyde, is home to a 270 kW rooftop solar system comprising 487 panels. This is expected to generate around 360 MWh of electricity each year, helping to meet the supermarket’s daytime energy needs and reducing the amount of electricity it draws from the grid.

The site has also been fitted with a 110 kW / 225 kWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and EV fast-charging facilities have been installed across four parking bays, with charging capacity of up to 200 kW direct current. The chargers are integrated with the battery system to help manage the supermarket’s peak electricity demand.

The store has also been fitted with an electric heating system works alongside a natural CO₂ refrigeration system, recovering waste heat from refrigeration and combining it with electric heat pumps to provide 171 kW of heating across the store, replacing the need for gas heating.

Coles’ Head of Energy Jane Mansfield said together, the new systems are designed to reduce the store’s reliance on on-site fossil fuels and grid-supplied electricity.

“Orana Village is an important step forward in how we design and power our stores,” she said. “As our first fully electric supermarket in Australia, it represents the next generation of a Coles store and … gives us a blueprint for what a lower emissions and more resilient store network could look like.”

“For our customers, this store means a more convenient way to fast charge their EV while they shop, with the store’s solar and battery system helping reduce pressure on the grid and support our operations by powering everything from our refrigeration to lights and our checkouts.”

The solar and battery systems were delivered through Coles’ existing partnership with electricity gen-tailer Origin Energy, a collaboration that has now been extended for a further three years to 2029.

Under the next phase, Coles and Origin expect to deliver an additional 15 MW of rooftop solar capacity across up to 75 stores nationwide and 15 MWh of battery energy storage across up to 20 stores.

Participating sites are expected to reduce their annual grid electricity consumption by an average of almost 20%.

Since the first phase of the project was launched in 2023, Coles and Origin have delivered solar installations across 73 stores and distribution centres, representing 16.45 MW of rooftop solar capacity, alongside 1.35 MWh of battery energy storage across five stores.

As a part of the ongoing partnership, Coles and Origin will continue to trial a battery system that combines wholesale energy arbitrage and peak demand management with a backup power system.

Traditionally, retailers have relied on diesel or gas generators to provide backup power to lighting, point-of-sale and other critical systems during outages.

Origin general manager, enterprise and strategic customers, Liam McWhirter, said the on-market backup battery system offers a more sustainable alternative by reserving battery capacity for essential store operations, such as lighting and payment systems, while using remaining capacity to support electricity market participation.

“The on-market backup BESS is a great example of innovation, providing stores with resilient back-up power while enabling available battery capacity to manage supermarket peak demand and participate in the wholesale electricity market,” he said.