Walmart Inc.
03/26/2024 | Press release | Archived content
Walmart Accelerates Clean Energy Purchases and Investments With Nearly 1 GW of New Projects Across the U.S.
In January, we announced Walmart's intent to accelerate our energy transformation strategy, an important element of our continued growth as a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer dedicated to helping people save money and live better. Today, I am pleased to announce that we have made commitments that will enable the construction of nearly 1 gigawatt (GW) of new clean energy projects across the country.
Our approach to new clean energy commitments is aimed at identifying high impact, high quality projects that drive positive outcomes. These projects are expected to expand access to clean energy, drive new tax revenue to communities, create local jobs and in the case of community solar initiatives, offer direct benefits to Walmart's customers, members and local communities by helping them save money on energy costs. These new investments will add to Walmart's existing portfolio, which consists of more than 600 onsite and offsite renewable energy projects already in operation or under development in over 10 countries.
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Community Solar: Around $6 million in annual savings for LMI households
The two community solar and distributed generation portfolios, developed by Pivot Energy and Reactivate, include 70 megawatts (MWac) from 26 new community solar and distributed generation installations across six states. Once operational, they are anticipated to produce ~160,000 MWh of clean energy annually, producing enough electricity to support community solar subscriptions for ~13,000 residential households in the U.S. These will enable approximately $8 million in annual savings on energy bills for households and commercial off-takers while bringing new clean energy online. Notably, around $6 million of these savings are expected to benefit low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities.
Renewable Energy Purchase Agreements: Expanding grid capacity with new clean energy
In addition to community solar, the execution of long-term renewable energy purchase agreements is key to reducing emissions and delivering more clean energy to our power grids. Through these long-term agreements, Walmart is enabling new clean energy projects that help support local jobs, generate new tax revenue in rural communities, drive clean energy to local grids and deliver meaningful progress toward our renewable energy and emissions reduction goals.
Developed by NextEra Energy Resources, EDP Renewable North America and Invenergy, these solar projects represent commitments by Walmart in new regions, including our home state of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The portfolio also includes additions to our renewable portfolio in Texas. Once in service, these projects will add 842 MW of capacity to the grid and will support progress toward our renewable energy goal - to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2035 - and contribute toward our zero emissions targets. These new projects are in addition to the 2 GW of renewable energy projects we've previously helped bring in service through long-term renewable energy purchase agreements.
Walmart has also executed several clean energy agreements directly with utilities, helping add new clean energy capacity within those service areas resulting in an additional 77 MW of capacity in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas.
Our commitment to enable 10 GW of new clean energy projects by 2030 - enough electricity to power the equivalent of over 2 million households - is designed to serve customers and communities and power our growth. An energy system that thrives on emissions-free energy, helps people save money and enables energy resilience for our domestic grid is good for everyone - our business, customers and members, communities and, of course, our planet. Walmart will continue to seek out investments that allow us to expand clean energy capacity and help customers and communities save money and live better, contributing to a more sustainable future.