Over the past few years, there has been tremendous growth in solar adoption by America’s top companies. Corporations worldwide are realizing the value of solar as an investment which can help them significantly improve their bottom line and save on operating/energy costs over the next 25 – 30 years. Just between 2012 and 2016, solar installations expanded from 300 MW to over 1 GW amongst the largest corporate solar adopters in the US.
Target, for instance, installed 68.8 MW of solar in 2016, increasing their total solar capacity installed in the US to 147.5 MW. Walmart has installed 145 MW of solar in the US, which to put into perspective is only 7% of Walmarts 5000+ facilities. The solar PV systems installed by the largest corporate solar adopters in the US collectively produce 1.5 million MWh annually, which is equivalent to powering 193,000 homes and offsetting 1.1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year! System sizes are expected to increase this year with the addition of several large-scale plants powering facilities for Apple and Amazon.
Top 10 US Corporations by Solar Capacity Installed in 2016
Top 10 US Corporations by Megawatts (MW) Installed
Top 10 US Corporations by % of Facilities with Solar
One of the key drivers of global solar PV growth is the rapid decline in PV technology prices. The huge decrease in solar installation prices has offset policy instability in many markets, and has provided a steady investment for the non-residential space in recent years. Since 2012, commercial prices in the US have fallen by 58% and in 2016 alone, it dropped by 16%.
While Canada has quite a bit of catching up to do to compete with global solar adoption levels, more and more businesses, farmers and municipalities here in Western Canada are choosing to harness our amazing solar potential to convert it into green dollars and savings for their businesses and facilities.
These are a few of the businesses, farmers and municipalities that we’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years:
Top to bottom: Green Acres Colony, New West Trucks, Imaginea Solar Powered Pumpjack, Wheatland County municipal building, Brant Colony Net Zero Egg Barn, Alberta Seed Farm, Alberta Commercial Farm, Sparwood municipal building, Alberta Poultry Farm, Mountain View County building, Alberta Dairy Farm, Earth’s General Store, University of Alberta PAW Centre, Telus Garden building, Seton Mall, Okanagan College in Penticton, SunMine BC, Alberta Poultry Farm
If you’re thinking about investing in solar for your business, now is a great time to pursue it as you could save up to 25% (or up to $500k) if you apply for the Alberta Commercial Solar Rebate Program which was recently launched. Please click here for more information about the rebate program or if you’d like to get started on an estimate, please fill out our site assessment form here.