Owner of a Hamilton shopping mall and office complex expect a solar panel installation to save them $17,000 a year in electricity costs.

And Washington Properties (Bermuda) Ltd, owner of Washington Mall, says it will pass on those savings to tenants.

As part of a major upgrade of the mall, bifacial solar panels are being installed on the roof of one of their buildings.

Paul Slaughter, director and general manager of Washington Properties (Bermuda), said the project was about cost as well as environmental issues.

“The roof was cleared recently as part of our renovations and we are using that space to install 120 high quality SolarWorld BiSun bifacial panels that are incredibly robust and guaranteed to produce energy for the next 30 years.

“We expect to make savings of about $17,000 a year on our energy costs once the system is up and running. These savings will be passed along to our tenants,” said Mr Slaughter.

Washington Properties is investing more than $8 million in a major upgrade of Washington Mall, which will include new shop fronts as well as behind the scenes improvements to the infrastructure.

Mr Slaughter added: “Bringing overheads down is important to any business, but we also wanted to demonstrate a commitment to the environment by deciding to install solar panels.

“It was felt that as the economy appeared to be improving that now was the right time to make the investment.”

The project is being completed by Bermudian energy company BE Solar, whose sales and engineering director Travis Burland said: “This project is another excellent partnership by an organisation that is leading by example to install solar, to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuel.”