Photo: Aaron Mendenhall
When we first reported the mysterious solar covered parking under construction at the Walmart Supercenter at the Foothills earlier this month, we asked readers to watch for any other Walmart solar covered parking sites in and around Tucson.
These solar structures are appearing almost out of nowhere and we now have reports with photos of two solar covered parking installations under construction:
- Walmart Supercenter 7635 N. La Cholla Blvd, Tucson
- Walmart Supercenter 2150 East Tangerine Rd, Oro Valley.
Our thanks to Aaron Mendenhall for the Oro Valley sighting and the photo.
Walmart also responded to our request for information on what the planet's largest retailer was doing to save the planet's resources, and sent us a list of these first solar covered parking sites in Arizona.
- Walmart Supercenter 1695 North Arizona Blvd, Coolidge
- Walmart Supercenter 5605 West Northern Ave, Glendale
- Walmart Supercenter 2501 South Ave B, Yuma
- Walmart Supercenter 199 West 5th St, Douglas
- Walmart Supercenter 18680 South Nogales Hwy, Sahuarita
- Sam's Club 1462 South Pacific Ave, Yuma
Walmart is actually being applauded by the EPA as the No. 1 onsite green power generator in the country.
The response we received from Walmart stated that the retailer has three primary sustainability goals: to use 100% renewable energy, to create zero waste and to sell products that sustain people and the environment.
Walmart representatives did set a goal of being 100% reliant on renewable energy, back in 2005, and although they never really set a timeframe for accomplishing it, they are certainly moving in that direction. According to SEIA, since 2008, solar projects have cut the retailer’s costs by over one million dollars.
“As part of our renewable energy goal, we have started construction on solar shaded parking structures at select Arizona store locations,” said Rachel Wall, Walmart Senior Manager of Communications. “The Arizona climate makes it an attractive pilot market and we look forward to providing covered parking for our customers; plus it’s a natural extension of our rooftop solar program in the state.”
“These Arizona stores are our first solar shaded parking structures, following the success of solar canopies at our Buckeye and Casa Grande distribution centers,” said Wall. “System sizes range for 300KW - 600KW and each system provides between 15% - 20% of a store’s electricity requirements.”
In Arizona, Walmart currently has about 20 solar installations in operation. Working with SolarCity, the installations are financed under operating leases – SolarCity owns and installs and Walmart leases the systems.
SolarCity is the solar provider for not only Walmart, but also for Walgreens, Toyota, eBay, the U.S. Military and more than 1000 other organizations that control their energy costs with solar.
Walmart has more than 300 renewable energy projects globally - renewable includes solar, fuel cell, and wind.
If you experience a solar covered parking sighting at your neighborhood Walmart, please let us know at REDailyNews@outlook.com. We’d like to continue tracking these installations.