The Home Depot is going to install 13 megawatts of rooftop solar on 25 of its stores.
The Home Depot’s rooftop solar
Solar company DSD Renewables is working with the DIY giant to install rooftop solar on the stores, which are all in California. The solar roof installations will directly power the company’s store locations within the portfolio.
Construction will begin in early 2023, and once the solar rooftop installations are fully online, they’re expected to generate more than 17 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually. That’s the equivalent of removing 2,648 gas cars from the road annually.
The Home Depot’s goal is to produce or procure 100% renewable energy by 2030, equivalent to the electricity needs for all its facilities. There are nearly 2,300 Home Depot stores across North America, and the average Home Depot is around 104,000 square feet in size, so that’s a lot of empty rooftop space just waiting to be covered in solar panels.
But these aren’t the first rooftop solar installations for Home Depot; they’ve been at it since at least 2017, when it worked with Current, a subsidiary of GE, and Tesla.
DSD and The Home Depot are working together on further solar projects in New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts, with additional projects planned in Arizona, California, Illinois, and New York.
Dan O’Brien, vice president of direct origination at DSD, said:
This project marks 98 [Home Depot] stores that will have deployed solar rooftops with DSD.
The Home Depot shares our commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and we applaud the expansion of its renewable energy program.
In January 2022, Electrek reported that Home Depot’s annual rooftop solar potential was 2,732.8 GWh.
Electrek’s Take
Top comment by Gussy23
Every big box retailer should be considering this. How many square miles of big box roof top is there in the US? I'm sure a lot.
Saves the companies money. Gets them a tax break. Doesn't require finding new space for a ground array. Makes Mama Nature smile. That's a lot of checks in the win column.
Next: Home Depot to install EV charging at its locations.
Putting rooftop solar on big-box retail roofs is a complete no-brainer. Put it everywhere. Otherwise it’s completely wasted space. Keep going, Home Depot.
Read more: Here’s why rooftop solar should be installed on big-box retail stores right now
Photos: DSD Renewables
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