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Tesco USA to get "world's biggest" solar roof
2007-01-19
Los Angeles-based Solar Integrated Technologies (SITq.L) has struck a deal with British supermarket chain Tesco (TSCO.L) to build what it says is the world's biggest roof-top solar panel installation. Solar Integrated said on Friday it had won a $13 million contract to put solar panels on the roof of Tesco USA's new distribution center in Riverside, California. "Our BIPV roofing system will... provide a fifth of the depot's power supply, and save 1,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year," Solar Integrated Chief Executive R. Randall MacEwen said. "We believe this will be the largest roof-mounted solar installation in the world," he added. Tesco pledged on Thursday to spread an environmentally friendly message to its millions of customers and to set an example by spending more than 500 million pounds ($987 million), cutting prices on energy-efficient products and reducing pollution. Tesco accounts for almost one pound in every three spent in British supermarkets. Its move was the latest green initiative from a major British retailer, as the industry comes under government pressure to combat pollution and seeks to win over increasingly environment-conscious shoppers. Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) said on Monday it would spend 200 million pounds to make sure its packaging and clothing would be biodegradable or compostable and that none of its waste would be dumped in landfill sites. Carbon dioxide, a by-product of combustion, is the main greenhouse gas blamed by many scientists for trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing global warming.
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