The facility has been built on Costco Wholesale's Lake Elsinore, California warehouse. The facility covers 4180 sq meters (45,000 sq foot) and will prevent the emission into the atmosphere of some 458 tons of CO2 annually. The developers have compared this figure to the effect of planting 45 hectares (112 acres) of trees in the area.
The facility is part of the company's long term plan to cutting its energy costs through energy saving. This project is expected to supply at least 725,000 kWh per year during 25 years, which will surely mean important energy cost savings for Costco, already a cost conscious retailer.
SunEdison, probably America's biggest solar energy services company, utilized Kyocera 200 Watt Modules, and a SatCon 500 KW inverter in the facility. “This solar roof gives us an important addition to the list of technologies available to us to reduce our purchases of electricity and reduce our impact on the environment.” said Mr. Craig Peal, Assistant Vice President for Energy/Building Controls at Costco Wholesale Corp. This type of strategic will undoubtedly become a trend among big retailers, who have big spaces on top of their warehouses. They are not only able to improve their environmental credentials, but also save a big amount of money while mitigating climate change.
For additional information:
http://www.costco.com/
