Dexus Plans Battery Storage for New Industrial Builds

Dexus will install commercial-grade batteries to store energy from roof-top solar in all its new industrial buildings.

The publicly traded real asset investment group said it expected to deliver about a million square metres of new warehouse space in the next three years—more than half that in Melbourne’s west—and all of that would include battery storage.

Total energy savings for the battery-supported new facilities are expected to be more than $4.6 million and, according to Dexus figures, will remove about 27,450 tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere each year.

Under the initiative, the first tranche of battery infrastructure will be part of four new warehouse projects to be built at Dexus’s Horizon 3023 facility, a 127ha master-planned industrial estate about 18km west of Melbourne.

All four of those new warehouses will be speculative builds, with the first—a 20,000sq m facility—to be completed late this year.

Dexus is forecasting energy-cost savings at that first facility of about $4.60 a square metre, or annual savings of about $92,000.

Dexus head of industrial transactions and development Chris Mackenzie said the battery infrastructure initiative would reduce customers’ carbon footprint and that of the supply chain, while generating significant cost savings.

“This new base-build specification has the potential to set a new standard for industrial property developers, highlighting the positive role they can play in providing renewable energy solutions for customers and helping them reach their emission targets, one we hope the rest of the industry will follow,” Mackenzie said.

While the take-up of rooftop solar and battery storage has become more popular—particularly in residential buildings where batteries are being touted as part of the answer to escalating energy needs—commercial-grade batteries will double the effectiveness, supplementing power supply overnight in a sector that often counts 24-hour operations under its rooves.

▲ Dexus’s Horizon 3023 estate west of Melbourne will get four new warehouses, each with commercial-grade battery storage.

In a report released 12 months ago, the real estate and investment manager JLL found more than half of Australia’s top 100 industrial and logistics occupiers have net zero targets.

Nine of those, including Kmart, Bunnings, Linfox, Symbion and Super Retail Group, want to reach net zero carbon by 2030 or earlier.

In the report, Accelerating Logistics and Industrial Sector Sustainability, JLL said sustainability-related financial disclosure requirements, tightening regulatory pressures and intensifying consumer and stakeholder expectations were “all conspiring to turbo-charge the sector’s efforts in reducing the carbon footprint of both developers and occupiers”.

Dexus is one of the country’s biggest managers of industrial facilities, with an $11-billion portfolio.

The group, with its third-party capital partners, is investing an estimated $620 million over the life of the Horizon 3023 development. When completed the estate is expected to support 5000 to 6000 jobs.

To date, the estate counts Amazon, which has committed to about 36,700sq m for a fulfilment centre to service the Melbourne market, as well as Hello Fresh, Electrolux, Mitre 10, eStore and Myer among tenants.