Home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced it will add rooftop solar panels at 174 of its stores and distribution centers nationwide.
Solar PV has been installed at 20 sites already in operation. Once completed, Lowe’s said, the solar panels will provide about 90 percent of energy use at the location.
The retail giant is partnering with developers DSD Renewables, Greenskies Clean Focus and Infiniti Energy on the rooftop installations. Construction on many of the sites is expected to begin this year.
"Investing in renewable energy lowers operating costs and is an important step in reducing emissions associated with our stores and distribution centers,” Chris Cassell, Lowe’s vice president of corporate sustainability, said in a statement. “This initial rooftop solar portfolio is one example of the collaboration we seek with partners as we work toward our long-term and interim net-zero goals."
The work spread out among the three installers includes more than 120 stores and distribution centers in California and New Jersey. Infiniti will lead the installations in New Jersey, while DAD and Greenskies handle the brunt of projects on the west coast.
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Lowe’s is ranked as the second biggest hardware chain in the U.S. The retailer’s goal is to reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions and power operations with at least half renewable energy resources by 2030.
The near-term objective is reducing Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions involving those entities supplying the company with energy) emissions by 40 percents, relative to 2016 levels, by 2025.
Lowe’s was founded in North Carolina more than a century ago. The company now operates more than 2,000 stores throughout North America.
