UK retailer Sainsbury's installs 100,000th PV module

28 July 2013

On July 25th, 2013 Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. (London, UK) has reached a significant milestone in its investment in renewable energy as it strives to cut CO2 emissions and reduce energy bills. The retailer has installed 100,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) modules across 210 stores.

The PV arrays will help reduce Sainsbury’s total CO2 emissions by an estimated 9,785 tons per year as it retains its status as the largest multi-roof solar PV operator in Europe.

UK Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, welcomed the news during a visit to Sainsbury’s store at London Colney in St. Albans where he officially launched the retailer’s 12th Ground Source Heat Pump – another innovative technology that taps renewable energy from deep underground to provide energy efficient heating, hot water and cooling for the store.

Over 100,000 panels on over 200 stores

"Not only is Sainsbury’s increasing the amount of stores heated by renewable sources, it’s using solar panels on its roofs to generate energy too, with over 100,000 panels now up and running on over 200 stores”, Barker said.

Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s Head of Engineering, Sustainability, Energy and Environment added: "We’ve achieved a 9.1% absolute reduction in electricity use over the past four years in our supermarkets, despite a 25% increase in space, and we’re really seeing the benefits from using our underutilized space for solar panels, and from the other renewable technologies we’ve installed.”

Sainsbury’s investment in onsite renewable energy technologies is part of its ambitious sustainability target to reduce its operational carbon emissions by 30% absolute (and 65% relative) by 2020 compared with 2005. This is part of a broader target of an absolute carbon reduction of 50% by 2030.