Charlestown Square Rooftop Solar Project

Charlestown Square is one of NSW's largest shopping centres. Adding 770kW of rooftop solar and a 2MW battery energy storage system to an operating retail asset requires structural engineering that respects the building's existing loads, the centre's daily trading, and the long-term performance expectations of the renewable energy system.

RECOR partnered with Shell to deliver the structural engineering scope, including structural assessment of all roof elements supporting the new PV array. The assessment process is where these projects either become viable or become uneconomic, so the engineering depth at this stage carries the rest of the project.

The PV solar assessment covered load, fixing, and durability considerations across the diverse roof geometries of the shopping centre. Holding both the structural and solar assessment scopes under one engineering team gave Shell a single technical reference for the full installation.

Operating retail centres cannot pause for upgrade works, so the engineering responded to the constraint of continued trading. The result is a $5 million renewable installation that runs on a major retail asset without compromising what makes the centre work.