Seems like a good week for talking about Home Depot’s plans to start collecting sunshine.
The huge, Atlanta-based company – largest in Georgia – is adding solar installations at 50 stores, part of a long-term plan to reap chain-wide savings from alternative energy, “essentially creating mini solar farms out of unused rooftops,” in the company’s words.
The project is aimed at cutting demand for electricity from the grid at each Home Depot store.
The goal is a cut of 30 to 35 percent each year in electricity from the grid. Home Depot says that is the equivalent of powering 2,300 average American homes for a year.
The company can put 1,000 solar panels on the average store roof, which is about 104,000 square feet.
So far, none of the metro Atlanta Home Depot stores have the panels, according to a company spokesman.
The company says it now has an “alternative energy footprint” of more than 130 megawatts and hopes to reach 135 megawatts by 2020.
Information about the program is available here. https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/rooftop-solar-farms
Other looks at the local economy:
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MERCEDES OFFERS JOB TRAINING: YA WANNA WORK WITH CARS?
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VIDEO: More about solar energy
