Gap makes solar leap with one megawatt installation

UK retailers may be seeking to outdo each other over cutting plastic bag use, but on the other side of the Atlantic, retailers' attempts to curb their environmental impact are on a totally different scale.

Clothing retailer Gap Inc. has this week become the latest in a line of firms to embrace large-scale onsite renewable energy generation, flipping the switch on a one megawatt solar power system that has been installed at its west coast distribution centre in California.

The company has signed a power purchasing agreement with MMA Renewable Ventures, a provider of renewable projects to industry partners which will now operate the new system.

The solar project is expected to provide 7.5 per cent of the power used by the distribution centre.

The system, which was installed by SunPower and financed using a mixture of tax credits and incentives, uses a tracking system to follow the sun, which enables it to draw 25 per cent more sunlight than a non-tracking system.

"MMA Renewable Ventures will deliver power at a predetermined rate for the term of the 20-year agreement – allowing Gap Inc. to forecast energy costs over the long-term and minimise the increases and uncertainty in traditional utility power pricing," said Gap spokeswoman Melissa Swanson.

This is the first renewable energy project undertaken by the Gap. It spans five acres at the Fresno location, and is expected to produce 1.9 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, which the retailer says equals the power consumed by roughly 250 homes.

The project is the latest in a series of ventures for MMA Renewable Ventures, which is seeing increased demand from US firms for onsite renewable technologies.

The company opened a 3MW solar project at Denver Colorado airport in August. Earlier this month it also outlined plans for larger projects, signing a joint venture with Suntech Power Holdings, called Gemini Solar Development. That company will pursue projects greater than 10MW in the US market.