Scentre already knows what a car park canopy does. Marion has carried one since 2017 and Coomera since 2018. What has changed since those were built is the structure. The array and the canopy are now one factory-made pod, which brings the cost per covered bay down and gives the finished car park a cleaner roofline.
What the canopy does for the asset
The next 7.7 MWp, from three car parks
Onsite capacity went from 5.9 MW to 12.2 MW on the back of four rooftop projects. The three centres drawn here add 7.7 MWp on their own, on land the Group already owns.
One pod, engineered once
Canyon factory-builds 80% of each canopy at Braemar and crane-deploys the finished pods. Across a portfolio that turns each centre into a repeat of the last one, with the same structure, the same programme and the same price basis.
Open decks work too
The uppermost open level of a multi-storey car park carries a canopy on a suspended slab. It costs more than at-grade for loading and craneage, and it opens up the centres where the surface lots are small.
Shade that lifts the centre
Covered parking is a visible shopper amenity: protection from sun, heat and hail, a better arrival, and support for dwell time, foot traffic and tenant retention. In Perth and Brisbane that shade is worth something on its own.
Built on what Scentre has already proved
Scentre generated 7,806 MWh from solar in 2022 across Carousel, Coomera, Kotara, Marion and Plenty Valley, then more than doubled installed capacity from 5.9 MW to 12.2 MW by completing rooftop projects at Hornsby, Tuggerah, Fountain Gate and Knox. That is a portfolio that has worked through its roofs deliberately and at pace.
The car park is the surface with the most left in it. Westfield centres carry some of the largest car parks in the country, and the three drawn here represent 7.7 MWp between them. Every one of the existing canopies was field-built by a solar contractor with the structure engineered site by site. A factory-built pod turns the next tranche into a programme that repeats, which is what makes portfolio-scale worth doing.
Three centres, drawn and priced
These are not desktop guesses. Each canopy below was drawn to scale on the site's actual car park and priced through our engine. Figures are preliminary, ex-GST, subject to site assessment. Across these 3: 7.7 MWp, about 11.9 GWh a year generated on site, for roughly $13.6M of base scope.
Westfield Whitford CityHillarys, WA
Prelim PP-SCE-003
3.45 MWpSystem size
~5.35 GWh/yrGenerated on site
14,362 m²Canopy coverage
4,656Solar modules
$5.97MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.73/W)
165Structural columns
Held 50% by Scentre and 50% by JY Group. EV charging is not in this price and can be added.
Westfield North LakesNorth Lakes, QLD
Prelim PP-SCE-002
2.40 MWpSystem size
~3.60 GWh/yrGenerated on site
9,990 m²Canopy coverage
3,192Solar modules
$4.22MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.76/W)
111Structural columns
Held 50% by Scentre and 50% by Dexus. EV charging is not in this price and can be added.
Westfield CarouselCannington, WA
Prelim PP-SCE-001
1.88 MWpSystem size
~2.91 GWh/yrGenerated on site
7,825 m²Canopy coverage
2,568Solar modules
$3.37MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.79/W)
76Structural columns
Carousel already carries a 1 MW array. This canopy sits alongside it on the car park and adds close to twice that again.
Base scope is the canopy structure, install, civil, lighting, safety and engineering. EV charging is shown as an option. Site transport, trenching and battery are not included and can be added.
Proven with the retailers in your centres
Canyon Solar factory-builds solar canopies that turn large car parks into onsite power generation and shade. We have delivered them for Woolworths, across six sites, and for IGA, AstraZeneca and CSIRO. The canopy below sits over a supermarket car park, the same anchor format that trades across Scentre's centres.
IGA Baranduda, VIC. A Canyon Solar delivery.
The Grand Canyon
For the main lots, the standout design is the Grand Canyon: a continuous, full-coverage canopy with no gaps over the driving lanes. It gives the highest solar density in our range and a clean roofline that reads as a designed part of the centre.
Grand Canyon, a continuous full-coverage canopy with integrated battery and EV charging.
Any site, in minutes
The three centres above took minutes each. We can do the same for any Westfield in the portfolio, live: draw the canopy to scale on the car park, size it, and price it while you watch. We can also run the full economics on your own inputs, whatever tariff, self-consumption, finance structure or target return Scentre wants to test, so the numbers reflect how you assess an investment.
How to proceed
Own it (CAPEX)
Scentre holds the canopies and all the generation, on a 30-year design life, staged centre by centre across the portfolio.
Hardware as a service (OPEX)
$0 upfront. A service agreement arranged through an independent finance partner; Scentre keeps the generation and pays from the savings and revenue.
Every canopy is engineered, factory-built and installed by the team that has delivered 16 projects across three states.
A short working session to confirm the priority centres, validate the layouts on the actual title boundaries, and firm the tariff, common-area load and revenue assumptions with Scentre's real figures. Where a centre is held in joint venture the canopy is scoped and staged to match the ownership structure.