June 30, 2010
Albertsons Activates Solar Panels on Three Stores
Albertsons announced it has activated solar rooftop power systems at three of its stores in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Alpine, California, according to a company press release.
The system is designed to produce 12 million kilowatt hours of energy over the next 20 years, enough to power more than 1,100 U.S. homes for a year. The system will offset more than 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide over that time, the equivalent of taking 1,300 cars off the road for the same period.
The system was financed and will be monitored and maintained by SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, which has also been working with Staples, Procter & Gamble, and Owens Corning to provide solar power systems for the roofs of their facilities. According to the announcement, the installation required no upfront capital costs by Albertsons. SunEdison is the largest solar services provider in North America. REC Solar built the installation.
Albertsons is a subsidiary of SuperValu, Inc., one of the largest operators of grocery stores in the country. SuperValu said SunEdison will purchase the energy produced to offset their demand from the grid for 20 years. The solar power plants are the first activated between the two companies, which said they are investigating future deployment opportunities in other parts of the country.
Stay Up-to-Date On Environmental Management, Energy & Sustainability News with EL's Free Daily Newsletter
Advertisers
100% Online Lean & Green Supply Chain Courses
Attain proven tools and strategies to boost your career! >>
Trends in Sustainability Performance Management
Take the lead on sustainability. - Take the lead in your industry. >>
Can you report emissions without omissions?
Sustainability Leadership Series by Paul Baier, Groom Energy & CA >>
Recent Daily News [ see all ]
- 09/03/2010
- 09/02/2010
- 09/01/2010
- Wal-Mart Names New SVP Sustainability
- Medtronic Corporate Citizenship Report: Energy Use, CO2 Emissions Down 12%
- LEED Roundup: Exelon, Sony Pictures, Chicago Botanic Garden, WVU, NASA, Patriots Plaza I
- Ford Extends Driving Range of Focus Electric with New Battery
- Data Centers Target Higher Energy Efficiency, Lower Carbon Footprint
- Burger King Dumps Palm Oil Supplier over Land-Use Practices
- GM on Track to Make Half of Mfg Plants Landfill-Free
- Roundup – eBay, Neenah Paper, Bill Gates
- PG&E Smart Meters Work Fine
- Manufacturers to Pay for E-Waste under New Wisconsin Law
- Cisco, Itron Partner to Boost Smart-Grid Development
- California Rolls Out Zero Net Energy Plan for Buildings
- Greenpeace: 500,000 Facebook Users Tell Social Network Site to Get Off Coal
- EPA Rejects Texas Air Pollution Rules for Third Time
- Schwarzenegger Vows to Revive Renewable Energy Bill
- Norfolk Southern to Cut Carbon Footprint 10% by 2014
- California Rejects Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags
- REACH Regulation: The 5 Most Commonly Asked Questions
- Roundup – Fujitsu, Whirlpool, Metlife
- Largest Solar Rooftop Project in U.S. Planned For Salt Palace
- Reid Seeks Renewable Provision in Energy Bill
- NJ Business Park Proposes 6.5-MW Solar Power System
- Alfred Music Launches Initiative to Reduce Carbon Footprint
- Green Buildings Drive BIM Adoption
- Plug-In EV Market to Sell 3.2M Units by 2015
- Citywide Textile Recycling Program Best Practices
- Small Biz to Benefit from $1.5M Grant to Expand ‘Green’ Building Tech
- Foothill Transit Adds All-Electric Buses to Fleet
Charts [ see all ]
White Papers [ see all ]
- Building Sustainability in Hard Times: Integrated EHS Platforms Support Cost Savings
- Get Green Powered and Lower Your Energy Costs
- Eco-Competitiveness: Safeguarding Profitability and the World's Natural Resources
- The Revolution in Warehouse Lighting: LEDs and Intelligent Lighting Systems
- Global Trends In Sustainability Performance Management
- The EPA's Mandatory Reporting Rule
- A Business Framework for Excelling at Enterprise Carbon Management
- What's On Your Sustainability Dashboard?
- 9 Ways to Reduce Energy Costs
Comments and Discussions
Luigi Boskovitch on Cap and Trade Makes a Comeback
"how much will it cost to change? I worked hard to get what I have. Who is going to pay ME for the..."
Luigi Boskovitch on Greenpeace: 500,000 Facebook Users Tell Social Network Site to Get Off Coal
"How much will it cost to re-equip to convert to..."
chris on Energy Efficient Appliance Rebates Ready to Roll
"trying to get more info for warher rebate to sign up. Thanks"
Armando on Office Tower Saves 2.5M Gallons of Water Annually
"Amazing accomplishment! Something to be extremely proud of here in Miami. I’m..."
Dan Foster on Ford Extends Driving Range of Focus Electric with New Battery
"Finally, an American Automobile Company is taking a leadership role in..."
Helen on Alfred Music Launches Initiative to Reduce Carbon Footprint
"I think companies like Alfred Music Publishing, are doing a great job. Looking at..."
Mark LaCroix EVP Business Development, The CarbonNeutral Company on Data Centers Target Higher Energy Efficiency, Lower Carbon Footprint
"The..."
Reader Comments
Why must everyone inflate their numbers by calculating the amount over 20 years and 12 million kilowatts. The savings is 600,000 Kw/year. This store, depending on the effeciency of the equipment, uses about 3-3-1/2 million Kilowatts per year. Tell me more about the story. How much did it cost Albertsons to install something that will reduce its energy bill roughly 20%? How long is the return on the investment? There is so much fuzzy data on the market today making it difficult to make a wise financial decision on the feasability of solar energy. What’s the point of spending a dollar to save 50 cents just to have a warm fuzzy feeling. I would love to hear the whole story rather than numbers multiplied by 20 to impact the headline. You guys are in the grocery business. Why not make an apples to apples comparison. The savings will not take one car off the road. The savings will power 1100 homes for a year. Leave it at that.
John | July 1st, 2010
Wonderful! Its time for businesses to own up to the reality of climate change in a way that saves them so much money, I’ll always shop at ALbertsons now.
California Solar Engineering | July 1st, 2010
While I will not defend reporting styles or accuracies, I do not agree with some of the implications contained in the first comment.
First, one cannot compare up-front costs with ongoing savings in a simplistic statement about ’spending X to save Y’. Unlike X, the savings are ongoing, long into the indefinite future. Even economic quantities like net present value or ROI do not fully capture that distinction. In reality, one might spend X to save Y over Z years – and another Y+ in another Z years, and another Y+ after Z more years, and so on (the Y+ accounts for rising fossil-fuel-based energy costs). And at some later date, one will have to spend another quantity to replace the original equipment, probably at some cost much less than the original X.
And the action provides more than just “a warm fuzzy feeling”. It is precisely actions like this that will, when added together all across the nation and the world, eventually form our summed response to climate change (together with governmental actions). That warm fuzzy feeling is actually a critically important component of the summed response. AGW is a distributed problem – and only a distributed solution can hope to address it. Albertsons is taking one very tiny baby step along that distributed solution pathway.
Doug | July 1st, 2010