Walmart has announced its latest sustainable development initiative. It will install an industrial sized wind turbine at the Red Bluff distribution centre in California. The new GE 1.0 MW turbine will create about 2,200,000 kilowatt hours per year.
Walmart has entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Foundation Windpower in which Foundation WindPower will install, operate, and own the turbine, but Walmart will buy all the electricity produced. Walmart should benefit from energy savings, and also having a set energy price the foreseeable future.
Greg Pool, the senior manager of renewable energy and emissions at Walmart and project manager at the Red Bluff Installation, said "we are using every tool in the tool box as we work toward our goal to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, and wind energy is an attractive technology for Walmart."
"We found the perfect environment for an installation with the Red Bluff project - good wind conditions and open land that we own. As a result, we expect to reduce our energy costs from the day we flip the on switch. Should the technology at Red Bluff prove successful, Walmart will evaluate the potential for large-scale turbine installations at other distribution center sites in the United States."
Walmart has been pushing to install as much renewable energy as possible in its efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. As well as this wind turbine it also has 100 stores which run off solar panels, 348 stores in Mexico which get their energy from wind power, and 26 fuel cell facilities to provide electricity to stores in California.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More