This is a capital deployment case before it is an energy case. BWP's approach to funded works is already documented: development expenditure funded by the Trust and rentalised at the five-year swap rate plus a margin, with live projects at Pakenham and Midland. A canopy is a long-life structural asset on land the Trust owns, with a tenant who wants what it produces.
Why a canopy suits this portfolio
Rentalisable capital, on an established basis
The mechanism exists and has been approved: BWP funds, the works are rentalised at a defined funding rate, and the Trust picks up incremental income. A canopy is a larger version of works BWP already funds.
There is a car park precedent
Scoresby, May 2025: $1.4 million of car park works, in consideration for a new ten-year lease plus three five-year options. Car park capital has already been traded for lease term on this portfolio once.
A 30-year structure on owned land
The canopy is hot-dip galvanised steel with a 10-year structural warranty and a 30-year design life. It is a built improvement to the property, not plant sitting on someone else's roof, and it survives a change of tenant.
The Trust's exposure is Scope 3
BWP's own emissions are close to nil and its climate exposure is almost entirely the tenant's, at 78% of portfolio income. Generation delivered to the tenant is one of the few decarbonisation levers the Trust actually owns.
How it fits both sides of the lease
The lease structure means the value splits cleanly. BWP funds a long-life structural improvement on land it already owns, rentalises it on the established basis, and adds a built asset with a 30-year design life to the property. The tenant takes the generation, the covered customer parking and the platform for EV charging, without spending its own capital and without a rooftop project on a trading store.
On the tenant side the timing is the argument. Bunnings has committed to net zero Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 on a market-based basis and is already more than 90% down on its 2018 baseline, which leaves the hardest residual and four years to close it. Onsite solar covers up to 30% of a store's energy need and the balance is met with certificates, with Wesfarmers noting that the remaining gap sits mainly in embedded networks and landlord sites. A canopy at a landlord site is generation, not a certificate, and it is the one large surface at these properties that has never been built on.
Drawn and priced on your own car parks
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: 6.3 MWp, about 8.7 GWh a year generated on site, for roughly $11.3M of base scope.
Bunnings WarragulWarragul, VIC
Prelim PP-BWP-003
2.98 MWpSystem size
~3.73 GWh/yrGenerated on site
12,395 m²Canopy coverage
3,864Solar modules
$5.19MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.74/W)
$5.58MWith EV charging, ex-GST
Bunnings Hoxton ParkHoxton Park, NSW
Prelim PP-BWP-002
1.88 MWpSystem size
~2.63 GWh/yrGenerated on site
7,817 m²Canopy coverage
2,448Solar modules
$3.37MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.79/W)
$3.76MWith EV charging, ex-GST
Bunnings BalcattaBalcatta, WA
Prelim PP-BWP-001
1.48 MWpSystem size
~2.29 GWh/yrGenerated on site
6,145 m²Canopy coverage
1,962Solar modules
$2.70MBase scope, ex-GST ($1.82/W)
68Structural columns
BWP has $15 million of capital already committed at Balcatta, commencing late 2026. EV charging is not in this price and can be added.
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 large-format retail
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, a comparable single-level format on a comparable at-grade lot.
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 makes the car park look like a designed part of the property, not an afterthought. Installs can be staged where sections of the car park must stay open.
Grand Canyon, a continuous full-coverage canopy with integrated battery and EV charging.
The rest of the portfolio at a glance
Beyond the properties drawn above, we screened the portfolio for large, flat, at-grade customer car parks and sized each from its published lettable area. Together the 29 properties represent roughly 36.0 MWp and $71-84M of indicative solar canopy, a programme that can be staged property by property and matched to the existing capital plan.
| Site | Location | Anchors | System | Indicative |
|---|
| Bunnings Hoxton Park Drawn & priced | Hoxton Park, NSW | Bunnings Warehouse | 1.88 MWp | $3.37M |
| Bunnings Balcatta Drawn & priced | Balcatta, WA | Bunnings Warehouse | 1.48 MWp | $2.70M |
| Bunnings Warragul Drawn & priced | Warragul, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | 2.98 MWp | $5.19M |
| Bunnings Coburg Desktop | Coburg, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.74 MWp | $3.2-3.9M |
| Bunnings Dubbo Desktop | Dubbo, NSW | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.45 MWp | $2.9-3.6M |
| Bunnings North Lakes Desktop | North Lakes, QLD | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.32 MWp | $2.7-3.3M |
| Bunnings Browns Plains Desktop | Browns Plains, QLD | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.28 MWp | $2.6-3.2M |
| Bunnings Melton Desktop | Melton, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.25 MWp | $2.5-3.1M |
| Bunnings Bayswater Desktop | Bayswater, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.23 MWp | $2.5-3.0M |
| Bunnings Launceston Desktop | Launceston, TAS | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.23 MWp | $2.5-3.0M |
| Bunnings Harrisdale Desktop | Harrisdale, WA | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.20 MWp | $2.4-3.0M |
| Bunnings Wallsend Desktop | Wallsend, NSW | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.18 MWp | $2.4-2.9M |
| Bunnings Craigieburn Desktop | Craigieburn, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.17 MWp | $2.4-2.9M |
| Bunnings Rydalmere Desktop | Rydalmere, NSW | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.16 MWp | $2.4-2.9M |
| Bunnings Vermont South Desktop | Vermont South, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.16 MWp | $2.4-2.9M |
| Bunnings Minchinbury Desktop | Minchinbury, NSW | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.16 MWp | $2.3-2.9M |
| Bunnings Cannon Hill Desktop | Cannon Hill, QLD | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.16 MWp | $2.3-2.9M |
| Bunnings Maroochydore Desktop | Maroochydore, QLD | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.15 MWp | $2.3-2.8M |
| Bunnings Arundel Desktop | Arundel, QLD | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.09 MWp | $2.2-2.7M |
| Bunnings Croydon Desktop | Croydon, VIC | Bunnings Warehouse | ~1.08 MWp | $2.2-2.7M |
The table shows the 20 largest of 29 screened sites. A further 9 are sized in the full screen and available on request.
Desktop figures are derived from site area or lettable area and are indicative only. Drawn-and-priced figures come from a scaled layout and our pricing engine. All subject to site assessment.
Any site, in minutes
The properties above took minutes each. We can do the same for any site 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 it as a funding case on BWP's own inputs, whatever funding rate, rentalisation basis, lease term or target return the Trust wants to test, so the numbers reflect how you assess capital rather than our assumptions.
How to proceed
Fund and rentalise
BWP funds the canopy as development expenditure and rentalises it on the established basis, with the tenant taking the generation and the covered parking. The structure and the precedent already exist.
Third-party funded
$0 upfront from either party. An independent finance partner funds and owns the canopy under a service agreement; the Trust licences the car park space.
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 properties, validate the layouts on the actual title boundaries, and firm the funding rate, rentalisation basis and tenant supply arrangement. Balcatta is the obvious first candidate, since capital is already committed there and a canopy is cheaper designed into that programme than added afterwards.