December 12, 2007

Wal-Mart Looks At Investing In Power Plants To Get Cheap Green Energy

Wal-Mart has faced criticism at the Bali conference for only installing solar panels on 22 of its supercenters, representing only one percent of its total supercenters in the U.S., according to Climate Climate Change’s Blog from Bali.

Wal-Mart says it wants to incorporate more renewable energy but has resisted buying it because of the price.

“Wal-Mart is a very frugal company,” Angela Beehler, senior director of energy regulation at Wal-Mart, said, “and buying renewable energy from the grid is significantly more expensive.”

How to get around the problem? Buy a power plant. Walmart is looking into investing in power plants, such as biomass plants, and buying the energy direct, according to the post. “If we can participate in renewable energy provision we stand to get the energy at a more competitive price,” Beal said.

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