The national retailer operates 141.7 MW of installed solar capacity across its North American store locations
DSD Renewables, a commercial and industrial solar developer, partnered with the Home Depot to install 13 MW of rooftop solar across a 25-store portfolio in California.
The project portfolio represents a continued commitment to leverage roof space for solar generation as part of the national retailer’s renewable energy program. The installations contribute to the company’s goal to generate 100% renewable energy by 2030, the equivalent to the electricity needs for all its facilities.
The rooftop portfolio will begin construction in early 2023, and upon completion is expected to generate more than 17 million kWh of clean energy annually, the equivalent of removing 2,648 gasoline-powered cars from the road each year.
“Reducing The Home Depot’s environmental impact is essential to our efforts to build a better business, workplace and world,” said Ron Jarvis, vice president and chief sustainability officer, Home Depot. “Harnessing power from the sun is essential to our renewable electricity aims, and we’re happy to work with DSD as we expand our solar program and continue to invest in alternative energy solutions.”
DSD, or Distributed Solar Development, is continuing to work on projects with the retailer to broaden its solar energy usage in additional states such as New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts, with additional projects planned in Arizona, California, Illinois and New York.
“This project marks 98 stores that will have deployed solar rooftops with DSD,” said Dan O’Brien, vice president of direct origination at DSD. “The Home Depot shares our commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and we applaud the expansion of its renewable energy program.”
According to Home Depot’s 2022 ESG Report, at year end 2021 the retailer had 141.7 MW of installed solar capacity across its U.S. store locations, a 125% increase from 62.9 MW of installed solar capacity in 2020. The company also procured 62 MW of wind power and 41.3 MW of fuel cell assets.
As a result of new distributed generation projects, in 2021 Home Depot purchased less power from the grid, at 2.935 million MWh, compared to 3.1 million MWh in 2020, while the retailer produced 300,600 MWh of self-generated electricity for the year 2021, a decrease from 302,200 MWh generated in 2020.
Home Depot stores have cut electricity consumption 50% since 2010, providing customers a lower energy intensive shopping environment, Jarvis said in the 2022 ESG report.
Schenectady, N.Y.-based DSD Renewables has installed commercial, industrial and municipal solar projects for customers including IKEA (22 MW solar plus 15 MWh storage), T-Mobile (30.3 MW), Schenectady County, N.Y. (25 MW) and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system (11.5 MW).
Formerly GE Solar, DSD was spun off of General Electric in mid-2019 with backing from BlackRock Real Assets. Since then, DSD has expanded into community solar and asset acquisition in 2020, and launched a developer network and DSD Connect platform in 2021. After raising $785 million from BlackRock and investors, the company secured a $200 million equity investment from Ares Management in March 2022. As of December 2021, DSD operated a portfolio of more than 240 GWh of distributed generation assets.
