U.S. commercial solar installations could power more than 390,000 American homes according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative.
The top 20 corporate solar users’ installations alone combined generate an estimated $47.3 million worth of electricity each year; enough to power 46,500 average American homes.
Those who made the top 20 list, in order of on-site capacity are: Walmart, Costco, Kohl’s Department Stores, IKEA, Macy’s, McGraw-Hill, Johnson & Johnson, Staples, Inc., Campbell’s Soup, Walgreens, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Toys ‘R’ Us, General Motors, FedEx, White Rose Foods, Dow Jones, Snyder’s of Hanover, ProLogis, Hartz Mountain Industries and Crayola.
The report states the above companies have installed more than 1.2 million solar panels, which would cover more than 544 acres of rooftops. This is an important point – while large ground mount solar farms certainly have their place; our towns and cities offer a massive and under-utilised rooftop real estate resource. The area of suitable roof space available in Australia is said to be enough to provide all of the nation’s electricity needs.
The SEIA/Vote Solar Initiative report also says just two companies, Walmart and Costco, have more installed solar PV capacity than all of that deployed in the state of Florida, commonly known as the Sunshine State. Furthermore, the top 10 companies (by capacity) have deployed more solar energy than most electric utilities in the USA.
As of the middle of this year, businesses, non-profits and governments across the United States have deployed more than 2.3 gigawatts of commercial solar power systems and during the first half of 2012 one non-residential PV system came online every 72 minutes.
While installing solar panels can help a company’s green credentials, it also makes good business sense in another very important way; slashing operational expenses and buffering against continually increasing electricity costs.
The full Top Commercial Solar Customers in the U.S. report can be viewed here.
