Listen to this article

Willowbrook Mall is making a serious power play.

The Brookfield Properties-owned site in Wayne is the first U.S. shopping mall to pilot Tesla’s Megapack. The rechargeable lithium ion-based battery energy storage system will allow Willowbrook to harness, store and use energy generated from an existing rooftop solar array.

The Megapack is designed to boost the stability of power grids and avoid outages. Each unit boasts a storage capacity of more than 3 megawatt-hours, in other words, enough energy to power 3,600 homes for an hour.

At Willowbrook, the first-of-its-kind mall installation will store excess energy from a 1.2-MWh solar panel display that can then be discharged during peak hours.

“This provides additional reliability and flexibility to the energy supply at the property, allowing us to store excess solar energy for use at a later time, as needed,” Rhianne Menzies, Brookfield’s ESG director, said of North Jersey’s first Megapack.

Willowbrook’s solar panels made it the perfect location to test out Tesla’s system. The program will continue until the company has “gathered enough information to verify the pilot and plan for a further roll out,” according to Menzies.

Saved for a rainy day

While best known for electric cars, Tesla’s energy business is steadily growing thanks to its battery energy storage systems. Those include Powerwall (residential) and Megapack (large-scale commercial and utilities projects).

Designed to store energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, the systems allow energy usage even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

Tesla has established several energy storage sites with Megapacks, sometimes a single unit and other times several. Spread across numerous locations globally, they include big projects in Australia and Europe, solar farms in California and test sites in Japan.

The company also uses Megapacks at many of its own facilities, including its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.

Bigger picture

For Brookfield, the installation furthers its commitment to sustainability, shared Brian McCarthy, chief administrative officer, Retail, in a recent ESG report.

The new technology at Willowbrook – along with further renewables adoption – is “among other steps forward” as the New York-based commercial real estate agency seeks to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its 160-asset retail portfolio.

“We are driven by the fact that it is not just a solitary initiative but woven into everything we do — from the tenants and community partners we work with to how we develop our properties and conduct our corporate business. Sustainability and sound ESG practices are essential to Brookfield Properties as well as our parent company, Brookfield Asset Management, which sees ESG as integrally embedded throughout the investment process. We are proud of the steps we have taken … to advance our ESG program, expanding social and community programs, and maintaining our status as a U.S. leader in on-site solar capacity. In addition to our stated 2030 goals … we are beginning to develop decarbonization plans for every Retail asset, part of our journey to net zero by 2050 or sooner,” McCarthy said.

By the numbers

Menzies noted that Brookfield ranked seventh for on-site solar adoption in the U.S. by the Solar Energy Industries Association. She told NJBIZ, “We have 82 properties with the IREM Certified Sustainable Property certification and have installed solar at 50 properties, which generated over 56 million kWh of renewable energy last year.”

Brookfield also has nearly 500 EV chargers in its portfolio. Last year, Menzies said they logged more than 800,000 charging sessions.

Additionally, she highlighted Brookfield’s community outreach efforts. In 2024, more than 1,800 activations resulted in the equivalent of over 5.7 million meals donated to local communities.

See also:

• Here comes the sun: New legislation establishes New Jersey as a ‘solar garden’ leader