Federal government supports Wesfarmers net zero program.

 

Officeworks stores will soon be offering customers EV charging stations following a finance deal between the federal government and the retailer’s parent company Wesfarmers.

 

Wesfarmers has secured a $100 million loan with the government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to install more solar panels, batteries and EV chargers at its Bunnings and Officeworks stores.

 

Work to upgrade facilities at Bunnings and Officeworks sites is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

 

The chief executive of the CEFC, Ian Learmonth, said he hoped the financing package at the high-profile stores would help create a “ripple effect” through the commercial sector, where the uptake of rooftop solar has been slower than across residential properties.

 

The financing package, to be paid back by Wesfarmers over seven years at a competitive interest rate, would help accelerate the group’s decarbonisation plans, Learmonth said.

 

Bunnings and Officeworks have targets to reach net zero direct emissions by 2030, and to use 100 per cent renewable electricity by the end of 2025.

 

In 2023, Officeworks switched on its first behind-the-meter battery storage system at its Warana outlet in Queensland, that supplies around 70 per cent of the store’s power from rooftop generated solar.

 

With the addition of a contracted supply of large-scale solar and wind, the 100kWh battery alongside a 100kW PV array – installed by Smart Commercial Solar –took the Sunshine Coast store to 100 per cent renewables.