Environmental Leader

Wal-Mart has signed a four-year agreement with Duke Energy to supply up to 15 percent of the retailer’s total energy load for about 360 Texas Wal-Mart stores and other facilities using wind energy.

Under the deal, Duke Energy will provide about 226 million kilowatt-hours of renewable power each year from a wind farm that’s currently under construction in Notrees, Texas. The wind farm is expected to begin producing electricity for Wal-Mart by April 2009.

Wal-Mart says the renewable energy purchase will help it to avoid producing more than 139,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to taking about 25,000 cars off the road per year.

The company told Washington Post that the purchase would make it 15th on the EPA’s list of green power purchasers. Wal-Mart currently does not rank on that list or a list of the top 20 retailers.

Duke Energy recently caved to criticism and cut its $100 million distributed solar rooftop program in half after the company was criticized by companies such as Wal-Mart as being “unfair.”