Renewable power and reduction of carbon footprints are good business with the combination of cutting power costs and keeping regulators, customers, and investors happy with pro-green action.
Blackstone’s company Legence, which claims to be “maximizing the efficiency of more than 1 billion square feet across 5,000+ buildings,” has been on an acquisitions tear. One of its properties is Black Bear Energy, a self-described “a technology-enabled, commercial buyer’s representative specializing in onsite renewable energy and cleantech services.”
The latter has published its inaugural real estate solar leaderboards. Black Bear said that it tracks total megawattage deployed as well as asset types and will update its listings on a quarterly basis.
“The Real Estate Solar Leaderboards identifies the industry’s leading real estate owners and managers who have onsite solar installed across their portfolios,” a press release said. “Prologis, Lineage, Blackstone, Brookfield Properties Retail, and Hartz Mountain Industries topped the main inaugural ranking with at least 50MWdc each.”
The company went on to say that Prologis was top of the industrial category, not surprising given its overall placement as it is a big player in industrial. Brookfield Properties Retail topped retail. Kilroy was the lead among office owners, Avalon Bay headed multifamily. Blackstone was number one in multiple categories: data center; real estate manager; and other assets, which included hotels, RV resorts, and movie theaters.
The Prologis installed capacity of 217.4 megawatts was far and away the largest of any property owner included in the study. The next four out of the top five were Lineage Logistics (108.2 MW), Blackstone (98.6 MW), Brookfield Properties Retail (59.5 MW), and Hartz Mountain Industries (49.8 MW).
The installation numbers fall quickly after that. The bottom five in the top 20 were Digital Realty (4.3 MW), USAA (2.5 MW), UBS (2.4 MW), AEW (2.1 MW), and Equity Lifestyle Properties (1.8 MW).
The list, while interesting, may not be statistically representative as it includes only publicly announced installations or those “accessible through the public domain and/or the SEIA Solar Means Business 2022 Report, or deals facilitated by Black Bear Energy.” The report does invite property owners or managers to submit data they think should be included.
“The real estate industry has a tremendous opportunity to make an impact in the energy transition, as REITs and managers own large portfolios of buildings, parking garages and parking lots that can host solar in areas where distributed renewables are needed most – the distribution level grid where electricity demand is high,” Victoria Stulgis, senior vice president of client operations at Black Bear Energy, says in prepared remarks.