Tesla to deploy Powerpacks at several Home Depot stores, GE will build 50 solar rooftop systems

Today, Home Depot announces a new renewable energy push at 50 of its stores in the US.

They will deploy solar rooftop systems built by GE and energy storage systems built by Tesla.

The hardware store chain presented the new initiatives as “converting their rooftops into solar farms”.

Home Depot says that its average store rooftop is around 104,000 square feet in size – “meaning there’s 104,000 square feet of empty space sitting on top of each one.”

They are now trying to capitalize on this real estate by installing about 50,000 solar panels on 50 of those stores.

Current, a subsidiary of GE, has been contracted to build the rooftop solar systems and Tesla will install Powerpacks at 6 of those stores.

Here are the locations of the new installations:

“20 solar installations will at stores in New Jersey, eight stores in Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, DC. An additional 22 stores in California and New York will receive solar, of which six will utilize Tesla Powerpacks to store energy and dispatch additional power as needed.”

The new rooftop solar projects are part of Home Depot’s efforts to utilize 135 megawatts (MW) of alternative and renewable energy by 2020.

Tesla already had a partnership with Home Depot through SolarCity, which had salespeople in stores to market its solar products.

But those new projects are about Tesla’s stationary energy storage products.

It follows a series of recent new Tesla Powerpack projects, like a contract for a massive 100 MW/129 MWh energy storage system in Australia and a project with US electric utility Southern Company.

Those energy storage systems are used for peak demand shaving, demand management, and backup power.

When combined with solar rooftop systems, like at Home Depot’s stores, they can help the businesses use more of their own solar energy instead of relying on the grid.