Industry Intelligence

Supervalu-owned Albertsons has activated rooftop solar power systems at three Albertsons grocery stores in Carlsbad, Oceanside, and Alpine, Calif., all of which are located in the San Diego area.

Solar energy services provider SunEdison (a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials) financed the solar power plants, and will monitor and maintain the systems that will produce more than 12 million kilowatt-hours of energy over the next 20 years, according to Albertsons. That’s enough energy to power over 1,100 average U.S. homes for one year. The environmental attributes associated with the systems will offset more than 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide over the initial 20 years of operation — the equivalent of taking 1,300 cars off the road for the same period.

“[T]he activation of these solar sites that required no upfront capital costs for Albertsons,” said Rick Crandall, director of environmental stewardship for Albertsons’ Southern California division “The sites will allow us to continue making progress on our cost-saving measures and to support the use of clean energy as an alternative to the grid.”

Under the Solar Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA) with Beltsville, Md.-based SunEdison, Supervalu will purchase the energy produced to offset demand from the grid for 20 years. The solar power plants are the first activated between Supervalu and SunEdison. SunEdison worked closely with channel partner San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based REC Solar, which has completed more than 35 commercial solar systems for national and local retailers, totaling 16MW in the past 24 months. Supervalu and SunEdison are investigating future deployment opportunities in other regions of the United States.

Albertsons operates 503 Albertsons and Lucky supermarkets in Southern California, southern Nevada, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, and is part of Minneapolis-based Supervalu, which serves customers across the United States through a network of about 4,290 stores consisting of around 1,200 traditional and premium stores, including 850 in-store pharmacies; 1,180 hard-discount Save-A-Lot stores, of which 860 are operated by licensee owners; and 1,910 independent stores serviced primarily by the company's traditional food distribution business.