Wal-Mart is embracing alternative energy

This comes as no surprise to me, but Wal-Mart has been embracing alternative energy for now on four years.

It seem as though the many millions that the Waltons have is now being spent on things such as solar, wind, as well as fuel cell technologies. They currently have twenty six fuel cell projects underway, and plus they have a 1.1- megawatt wind turbine at a store in Red Bluff, California. The wind turbine is slated to come online within a month, according to a company spokesperson.

Wal-Mart, with 4,522 stores in the U.S., expects to have 1,000 solar-powered locations by 2020, Marty Gilbert, director of energy at the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company, said in an interview. The retailer gets about 4 percent of its power from renewable sources and plans to install another 100 solar systems by the end of 2012, demonstrating that renewable energy is economically viable to businesses. I can only say duh to the fact that they can make renewables profitable. I have been preaching that to people for years, but no one has taken me up on the idea.

Wal-Mart’s San Diego store is the 100th to get solar panels in California, the company said Monday in a statement. The company currently has 62 megawatts of panels installed at U.S. locations, and also operates fuel cells and wind turbines at some sites.

In addition to Wal-Mart, Apple and Ikea has joined in the effort of going green. Apple has a twenty five megawatt solar farm as well as a six megawatt fuel cell at their new data center in North Carolina-- an article I wrote March 12, 2012 detailed Apple's plans for what they termed Project Dolphin. But retail giant Ikea has also joined in this going green thing-- Ikea has solar projects at 26 U.S. sites and is planning to install 13 more, with total capacity of 38 megawatts.

This is exactly what we need. If more retailers can do this, it will make solar technology more affordable to the rest of us. Wal-Mart, Apple and Ikea mat be starting a new trend by doing this!