TESCO has unveiled plans to install solar panels on its large stores over the next three years.
The retailer said that onsite power generation will help it to manage increased electricity demand and higher energy costs.
With initiatives such as air source heat pumps used to replace gas heating boilers, customer EV charge points, and electric dotcom home delivery vans, the need for renewable electricity has never been more important, Tesco said.
The latest project forms part of a number of new power purchase agreements (PPA) with renewable investors, Tesco has already launched a series of onsite and offsite PPAs to increase the amount of renewable electricity it can generate directly.
Work is alreadt underway on the installations, with the first store in Thetford fitted with more than 1,000 solar panels as part of a PPA with renewables investor, Atrato Onsite energy. More stores are to begin construction before the end of year, which Tesco said will see an additional 2GWh of electricity generated.
Ken Murphy, Tesco group CEO, said, “As we all face into the effects of climate change, scaling up our use of clean renewable energy has never been more important. That’s why we are continuing our work to source green electricity from our own estate, setting out ambitious plans to install solar panels on the roofs of 100 of our large stores across the UK over the next three years – moving us further towards our target to be carbon neutral in our own operations by 2035.”
Gurpreet Gujral, MD at Atrato Partners, which is installing solar panels at Tesco’s Thetford store, added, “Tesco has made impressive progress in its ambitious journey towards net zero, and we are proud to be working together to deliver the next phase of a solar rollout across their portfolio of supermarkets. As the UK’s leading food retailer, Tesco’s adoption of onsite solar will have a significant impact on emissions, and we look forward to supporting the business over the coming years to bring clean, traceable energy to more sites up and down the country.”
