SolarCity has completed commercial solar installations at two Walmart stores in El Paso, Texas, representing the first full size rooftop solar installations at Walmart stores in the state and SolarCity’s first commercial solar projects in the City of El Paso. Similar to SolarCity’s residential solar offering for El Paso homeowners, the new solar arrays were installed for no upfront cost and are expected to help the company manage energy costs, provide long term price stability, and help the company meet its renewable energy goals.
Comprising more than 2,100 panels and a total of 644 kilowatts of generation capacity, the two installations at Walmart stores on Hondo Pass Dr. and Dyer St. are expected to generate enough solar energy over the next 10 years to power nearly 950 average homes for a year. Over the same period of time, the solar systems will also prevent more than 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere – the equivalent to taking more than 1,200 cars off the road for one year or planting more than 150,000 trees.*
Through a power purchase agreement, Walmart will pay SolarCity only for the renewable electricity it generates at the two sites. SolarCity designed and installed the systems and will operate, insure, monitor and maintain them throughout the agreement.
SolarCity has completed more than 200 solar projects at Walmart locations since 2010. In November, SolarCity announced that it entered into contracts to install new solar projects at Walmart facilities in up to 36 states over the next four years.