Walmart Winds Up Wind Power In California

Photo: Walmart

As Walmart installed solar panels on its 100^th California store in San Diego last week, a 265-foot-high wind turbine was rising outside one of the retail giant?s distribution centers in the rural reaches of the Golden State.

The 1-megawatt, General Electric turbine in Red Bluff is Walmart?s first such installation and the next stage in the company?s efforts to eventually obtain 100% of its energy from renewable sources.

?It looks like our renewable energy strategy is going to take a lot of tools,? says Greg Pool, a director of energy for Walmart. ?We are pursuing wind energy and renewable energy at a lot of different levels.?

The company has installed micro-turbines a top light poles at stores in California and Massachusetts that generate between 2 to 3 kilowatts of electricity but Red Bluff is the first facility that will boast a full-sized wind turbine like those found on wind farms that generate hundreds of megawatts of power.

The GE wind turbine is expected to supply between 15% and 20% of the Red Bluff distribution?s electricity demand. As with Walmart?s solar installations, the retailer won?t own the turbine. In this case, Walmart will buy the electricity it generates under a 15-year power purchase agreement with Foundation Windpower, a Silicon Valley company that installs large turbines for businesses.

?We?re targeted to save money from day one of the project,? says David Ozment, Walmart?s senior director of energy.

Walmart operates more than 100 distribution centers across the U.S. and the company is looking at the suitability of the sites for wind power, according to Pool.? ?Clearly there?s opportunities for us going down the road,? he says.

Just don?t expect to see giant wind turbines go up at your local Walmart. Besides the inevitable headaches that would come from trying to obtain permits to install a 25-story machine with blades that stretch 250 feet, such a turbine would generate more electricity than a typical store needs, Pool says.

?One thing I would like to see, and this is kind of a missing link in the wind industry in the U.S., is that there?s not enough medium size turbines in the 400 kilowatt to 800 kilowatt size.?

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Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2012/08/06/walmart-winds-up-wind-power-in-california/

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