Home Depot cited for commitment to carbon reduction, will launch new wind farm

The Home Depot announced this week a series of new renewable energy initiatives for 2019 and beyond.

As part of its efforts to procure 135 megawatts of energy from various alternative sources by the end of 2020, the retailer is making major investments in wind and solar in 2019. Home Depot will expand its wind-powered renewable energy program by purchasing wind energy from the Pretty Prairie Wind Project in Kansas. Home Depot will purchase enough wind power to power about 40 stores for a year. A subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources owns the Pretty Prairie Wind Project. It is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs, up to 20 full-time operational jobs, and provide an estimated $77 million in local community benefits. Through a 15-year power purchase agreement, Home Depot will purchase 15 megawatts (MW) of the wind farm’s 220 MW capacity once it is operational in late 2019. The wind farm will feature 83 wind turbines.

This is the third wind farm that Home Depot will utilize. The retailer currently partners with two operating wind farms in Texas and Mexico.

Home Depot will also expand its solar power capabilities. The company currently procures energy from solar farms in Delaware, Massachusetts, and Minnesota with a combined annual output of 25.0 million kilowatt hours (kWh). Also, 45 Home Depot stores in the United States have rooftop solar systems and it will expand upon its number of rooftop solar offerings.

For its efforts, Home Depot was named to the Climate Change “A” List by an environmental nonprofit called CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) for its actions to cut carbon emissions. Thousands of companies disclose data about their environmental impacts to CDP each year for independent assessment. Companies then receive grades from CDP of A to D- for how effectively they are tackling climate change.

Home Depot is aiming for a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a 50 percent reduction by 2035.

“Managing carbon emissions has been a focus for Home Depot for more than 10 years,” Ron Jarvis, vice president of environmental innovation at Home Depot, said. “Our dual strategy to reduce our total energy use and create a cleaner energy portfolio has helped us to reduce our absolute carbon emissions by over 3 million metric tons since 2009.”