Walmart Puerto Rico: Largest Solar Energy Project

A recent press release from Walmart Stores, the company ranked first on the Fortune 500 List, announced a large scale solar energy project planned in Puerto Rico. The company is teaming up with SunEdison, North America's largest solar energy services provider, to deploy rooftop solar systems on five Walmart Puerto Rico stores which should provide at least a quarter of the power required for each store or club. With the potential to expand to cover 23 stores over the next five years, this is the largest renewable energy project ever developed in Puerto Rico. This project should provide Walmart with long-term, predictably priced, clean energy.

Construction will begin at Walmart Supercenter Caguas before the year is out. SunEdison is to finance, own, build, and operate the photovoltaic solar energy systems. The systems installed may vary from store to store, but the first five sites can expect to receive 25 to 35 percent of their power from the solar power-generating systems. The contract for the project is 15 years long, and in this time it is estimated that these zero-emission systems will produce 90million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity.

Renzo Casillo, president and CEO of Walmart Puerto Rico stated, “We are transforming every aspect of our operation, and that includes energy consumption. Today, our new Walmart stores are 21 percent more energy-efficient than our original 2005 stores. Through the implementation of energy-saving strategies and the installation of energy-efficient equipments, last year we achieved an 8.7 percent reduction in energy consumption compared to the previous year. With this solar energy project we’ll continue to broaden our efforts towards our main objective and commitment of being supplied 100 percent by renewable energy”.

Carlos Domenech, SunEdison COO, reported, “We commend Walmart’s aggressive leadership in renewable energy as a model for all industries. Our collaboration in Puerto Rico will provide a long-term financial return on Walmart’s investment in energy. The project also brings the solar industry to Puerto Rico with well-paying jobs for the island on top of the reduction of greenhouse gases to improve the environment.”