BIZ BUZZ: SM Prime’s power move

Property giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. isn’t just dominating the real estate market, as its real power move is on its rooftops.

Last July, SM Prime switched on the country’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic system on top of a commercial building at SM City Fairview.

With nearly 7,000 solar modules across 4.3 hectares, about 11 percent of the annual electricity consumption of this mall is now sourced from the sun.

With efforts to go green traced back to a decade ago, the Sy family-led group now boasts of solar panel systems across 48 malls and properties. This means that more than half of the group’s 88 shopping malls in the country are now harnessing the power of the sun.

All output combined, this allows SM to generate about 72 megawatt peak (MWp) of renewable energy—which is like operating a power generation facility as big as the Capa Wind Farm of ACEN Corp. in Ilocos Norte.

This initiative has also put the property giant in the 2025 edition of the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo)-Green Technology Book, a flagship publication of the United Nations Wipo that highlights energy technologies.

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“This milestone is a testament to the foresight of our executive committee chair, Mr. Hans T. Sy. He saw early on that clean energy would be essential to resilient communities, and this continues to guide SM Prime in building sustainable and future-ready developments,” said SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim.

For the executive, slowing isn’t an option as SM has set a bolder goal—hit 100 MWp before 2025 ends.

SM Prime’s target just shows sustainability runs in the family, with parent SM Investments Corp. seeking wider presence in the renewable energy space: from geothermal and solar sources to wind.