CNN
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With the US striving to lessen its substantial dependence on fossil fuels and transition to more sustainable energy sources, numerous specialists are looking at a viable answer: the large retail stores and shopping centers in your area.
The expansive rooftops and parking lot areas of major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Costco are substantial. These largely unused areas are being promoted as unexplored opportunities for solar energy, potentially aiding the US in decreasing its reliance on imported energy, reducing emissions that warm the planet, and saving corporations significant funds in the process.
At the IKEA location in Baltimore, the installation of solar panels atop the building and above the parking lot reduced its energy purchasing needs by 84%, cutting costs by 57% from September to December 2020, as reported by the company. (The solar panels also offer some helpful shade to keep vehicles cool during hot, sunny weather.)
By February 2021, IKEA had set up 54 solar arrays across 90% of its locations in the US.
Large retail stores and shopping centers boast sufficient roof space to generate half of their yearly electricity requirements using solar energy, according to a report from nonprofit Environment America and research firm Frontier Group.
Harnessing the complete rooftop solar potential of these large retailers could produce enough electricity to power nearly 8 million average households, the report asserts, and would eliminate the equivalent planet-warming emissions as removing 11.3 million gasoline vehicles from the roads.
The typical Walmart store, for instance, features 180,000 square feet of rooftop space, as stated in the report. That’s about the same area as three football fields and enough room to accommodate solar energy that could power roughly 200 homes, the report noted.
“Every rooftop in America that isn’t generating solar energy is a wasted rooftop as we strive to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and the geopolitical issues that accompany them,” Johanna Neumann, senior director of Environment America’s campaign for 100% Renewable, remarked to CNN. “Now is the time to advance local renewable energy generation, and there’s no better site than the roofs of America’s big-box superstores.”
Proponents engaged in clean energy workforce training programs indicate to CNN that a solar transformation in large retail would also be a considerable boon for local economies, driving growth while addressing the climate emergency, which has caused unequal harm to underprivileged communities.
However, only a small number of the big-box stores in the US currently have solar systems on their roofs or solar canopies over their parking areas, according to the report’s authors speaking with CNN.
CNN reached out to five leading retailers in the US — Walmart, Kroger, Home Depot, Costco, and Target — to inquire: Why not put more investment into rooftop solar?
Numerous renewable energy professionals highlight solar as a relatively straightforward solution to reduce costs and curb fossil fuel emissions, but the companies cite various obstacles — regulations, workforce expenses, and structural integrity issues of the rooftops — as barriers to broader implementation.
The urgency for such clean energy initiatives is becoming “unquestionably critical” as the climate crisis intensifies, stated Edwin Cowen, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Cornell University.
“We’re at a significant disadvantage, to say the least,” Cowen told CNN. “I would have liked to see policy assist in incentivizing rooftop solar projects 15 years ago rather than five years ago within the commercial sector. There remains a substantial amount of work to be accomplished.”
What’s causing the delay?
Neumann remarked that Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, has the most substantial solar potential. Walmart operates around 5,000 stores in the US and possesses more than 783 million square feet of rooftop area — greater than the size of Manhattan — along with more than 8,974 gigawatt hours of potential annual rooftop solar energy, according to the report.
This amount of electricity could supply power to over 842,000 homes, as per the report.
A spokesperson for Walmart, Mariel Messier, informed CNN that the company is involved in renewable energy initiatives globally, but many of these are not solar projects on rooftops. The company has disclosed the completion of on-site and off-site wind and solar projects or is developing others that can generate over 2.3 gigawatts of renewable energy.
Neumann stated that Environment America has met with Walmart several times, encouraging the retailer to pledge to install solar panels on rooftops and parking lots. The company has indicated its goal is to source 100% of its energy from renewable projects by 2035.
“Of all retailers in America, Walmart has the most potential to make a significant impact if they install rooftop solar on all their locations,” Neumann remarked to CNN. “And for us, this report just highlights how significant of an effect they could achieve if they take that step.”
Environment America indicated that Walmart had deployed nearly 194 megawatts of solar power capacity on its US facilities by the conclusion of the 2021 fiscal year, alongside further capacity from off-site solar farms. The installations in California were expected to satisfy between 20% and 30% of each location’s energy requirements.
Target was ranked No. 1 for on-site solar capacity in 2019, as per the latest report from the Solar Energy Industries Association. It currently has 542 locations with solar panels on their roofs — approximately a quarter of the company’s stores — a spokesperson indicated to CNN. The solar on rooftops provides enough power to fulfill 15% to 40% of Target properties’ energy needs, according to the spokesperson.
Richard Galanti, the chief financial officer of Costco, shared that the company has 121 stores equipped with rooftop solar systems globally, 95 of which are in the United States.
Walmart, Target, and Costco did not disclose to CNN the principal obstacles they face in expanding rooftop or parking lot solar panel installations at additional locations.
Estimated number of homes companies could power with rooftop solar
“I suspect they’re seeking an even stronger fiscal justification for diverting from the status quo,” Neumann stated. “Historically, those roofs have merely covered their outlets, and reconsidering how [they] utilize their structures and viewing them as energy producers, rather than just shelters from weather, requires a minor adjustment to their business framework.”
Home Depot, which operates approximately 2,300 stores, currently has undertaken 75 completed rooftop solar initiatives, with 12 under construction and over 30 planned for future advancement, as noted by Craig D’Arcy, the company’s energy management director. On average, solar energy provides around 50% of these stores’ energy requirements, he stated.
Aging rooftops at retail locations are a significant “barrier” to solar installation, D’Arcy continued. If a roof needs replacement within the next 15 to 20 years, or sooner, it doesn’t make financial sense for Home Depot to install solar systems at this time, he added.
“We aspire to install solar rooftops where the economic conditions are appealing,” D’Arcy informed CNN.
CNN also contacted Kroger, which operates around 2,800 stores throughout the US. Kristal Howard, a spokesperson for Kroger, communicated that the company presently has 15 sites — including stores, distribution facilities, and manufacturing plants — outfitted with solar installations. One of the many factors influencing the feasibility of a solar system installation was the buildings’ capacity to support such installations, Howard expressed.
Cowen, the engineering professor from Cornell, noted that while solar energy is already appealing, high labor costs, need for incentives, and various layers of regulation may present financial hurdles for solar installations.
“This typically implies hiring a local contracting firm capable of executing the installation while also understanding local regulations,” Cowen remarked. “This adds another layer of complexity, yet this complexity is starting to become manageable as costs decrease, but it requires re-evaluating the process of how existing buildings are upgraded.”
Representative Sean Casten from Illinois, who co-chairs the power sector task force in the House, remarked that the US has “fallen short in offering incentives to individuals with the expertise necessary to undertake these projects.” Both the retail sector and energy industry have made little headway on solar implementation due to “the disjointed nature of our system” and the intricate regulatory framework, Casten stated.
“Why aren’t we implementing something that is economically sensible? The response is this scattered federal approach where we heavily subsidize fossil energy extraction while penalizing clean energy generation,” Casten articulated to CNN. “For an extended period, if one intended to install a solar panel on Walmart’s rooftop, the biggest obstacle would likely be the local utility, which did not want to lose load.”
“We could have initiated this decades ago,” Casten added. “Had we followed through, we wouldn’t be facing this critical environmental situation, and we would also have far more financial resources.”
Addressing climate change equitably
For Charles Callaway, director of organizing at the nonprofit organization WE ACT for Environmental Justice, enhancing the rooftop solar capacity in large retail stores is an obvious choice, especially if companies enable local communities to benefit through job opportunities in installation or by sharing the produced electricity in the future.
Regardless, it would make significant strides in alleviating the climate challenge and facilitate an equitable transition away from fossil fuels — and it’s achievable, Callaway shared with CNN.
The resident of New York City led a worker training initiative that successfully trained over 100 local community members, primarily from diverse backgrounds, to become solar installers. He also established a solar workers cooperative to guarantee that many participants of the training program secure employment in a challenging market.
In the past two years, Callaway noted that his organization has installed solar panels on the roofs of affordable housing units, alongside equipment capable of generating 2 megawatts of solar power at shopping malls upstate New York. He emphasized that hiring local workers would be the most advantageous as local installers possess the best understanding of the community and applicable regulations.
“A major concern of mine is social equity,” Cowen expressed. “Access to renewable energy is currently a privilege, and we need to devise ways to change that.”
Jasmine Graham, WE ACT’s energy justice policy director, stated that the opportunity for establishing rooftop solar on major retail superstores is promising, but only “if these endeavors employ local labor, conform to prevailing wage standards, and the solar power generated benefits the community through programs like community solar, which could provide [utility] bill reductions for residents within the same utility region.”
There is increasing pressure on global leaders to take immediate action regarding the climate crisis following a UN report released in late February, which alerted that the opportunity for action is swiftly diminishing.
Neumann is confident that the US can fulfill its energy requirements through renewable sources. All that is necessary, she mentioned, is the political determination to facilitate that transition and the involvement of the local community to ensure that no one is excluded in this process.
“The timing of our transition will determine the quality of our air, the protection of our environment, and our health, as well as establishing a sustainable future for our children,” Neumann stated. “Even if this necessitates investment, it’s an investment that is worthwhile.”
CNN’s Judson Jones contributed to this report.
