Walmart and SunPower agree to largest solar deal in Illinois history
As part of stated plans to reach 50 percent renewable energy in its global operations by 2025, Walmart reached an agreement with commercial energy provider SunPower last week to install 23 megawatts (MW) of solar power at its Illinois operations.
These operations include 19 of the stores for which Walmart is best known, as well as 2 distribution centers. The combination of rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems will be financed through a power purchase agreement (PPA) that comes with no upfront capital costs. Though SunPower has arranged the agreement, Walmart will still own the renewable energy credits accumulated by the system created.
“Solar is a vital component of Walmart’s expanding renewable energy portfolio,” Mark Vanderhelm, Walmart’s vice president of energy, said. “Walmart plans to tirelessly pursue renewable energy projects that are right for our customers, our business and the environment. These planned projects with SunPower are moving us in the right direction toward our renewable energy goals.”
Though the United States has since withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, which seeks to rein in greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world, Walmart has pushed forward with clean energy initiatives. In October 2016, it became the first retailer to set an emissions-reduction plan approved by the Science Based Targets initiative in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement, under which the company pledged to reduce emissions from its 2015 production levels by 18 percent by 2025, and to reduce emissions by 1 gigaton through the production and use of the products the company sells by 2030. To move closer to those goals, Walmart has often relied on PPAs, like in Illinois.
Construction on the Illinois project is expected to begin in the first half of 2019, and while it puts Walmart a step closer to its green goals in a single region, for Illinois, it represents something much more significant.
“Illinois is in the early stages of a solar boom,” Lesley McCain, executive director of the Illinois Solar Energy Association (ISEA), told Daily Energy Insider. “The state is currently ranked 34th for installed solar capacity in the U.S. with 98 MW installed. By 2022 we will have 3,000 MW of solar installed and will be firmly in the top 10 U.S. states for solar. Much of this growth is driven by the state’s policy commitment to reach 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.”
When the Walmart project concludes, Illinois will have 25 percent more solar capacity than it currently possesses, and the power provided will be capable of powering around 30,000 homes. It is hands down the single biggest commitment to solar ever made in the state, but McCain says it’s also part of a growing trend.
“Major deals like this are proof that renewable energy makes business sense,” McCain said. “Corporations are responding to consumer demands to invest in clean energy and fight climate change. Corporate procurement of renewable energy smashed records in 2018. The sector is on track to procure 5 gigawatts of renewable energy in this year alone.”
Renewables ventures also fuel job growth, with projects in Illinois potentially creating hundreds of jobs, according to the ISEA, and more could follow, if other companies see advantages to the approach Walmart is taking.
“It’s safe to assume that the companies involved benefited from economies of scale by putting together a large, multisite package,” McCain said. “Businesses that may have been hesitant to go solar can look at Walmart’s example and see that major corporations are going all-in on this proven technology.”
Contractors and suppliers will also see growth opportunities with every new solar installation. So while the union of SunPower and Walmart represents a step forward for solar in general, and the companies specifically, Illinois could be the real winner here, feeling economic effects for many years to come.
