SunPower today announced that more than 2.6 megawatts of SunPower® solar projects are installed and operating at eight Whole Foods Market locations across two states, with one site combining an integrated storage system. These projects are expected to help the natural and organic grocer replace 25 percent of traditional grid energy use on average per store.
A SunPower Helix Roof solar project is delivering clean electricity to the Santa Rosa Whole Foods Market where a Helix Storage system is also installed to further decrease demand charges for the organic grocer.
The California Whole Foods Markets with SunPower solar are in Cupertino, Fremont, Los Altos, Roseville, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Santa Rosa. The Santa Rosa location also has a 483-kilowatt (900-kilowatt hour) Helix® Storage system installed to further decrease demand charges, backed by a SunPower demand savings guarantee. Combined with a solar system operating at a store in Reno, Nevada, these projects are expected to generate more than 3.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. This is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emissions reduced by switching nearly 98,000 incandescent lamps to LEDs according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's carbon footprint calculator.
"We are thrilled to work together with Whole Foods Market as they make critical investments in solar and storage to positively impact their community and the planet," said Nam Nguyen, SunPower executive vice president, commercial solar. "Like Whole Foods Market, more companies across the U.S. are choosing SunPower's complete Helix solar and storage solutions to save costs and more efficiently manage their energy use."
SunPower designed, installed, and is operating the eight solar projects for Whole Foods Market. An additional 2 megawatts are planned across another 11 stores in California, expected to be online in early 2020.
"Since we opened our first store in 1980, Whole Foods Market has been an industry leader in environmental sustainability and energy management," said Aaron Daly, global director of energy management at Whole Foods Market. "These solar projects from SunPower support our core value of advancing environmental stewardship in the communities where Team Members and customers work and live."