Kohl's Converting Californian Stores To Solar Power
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 04.27.07
Yesterday, Kohl's announced plans to convert more than 75 percent of its department stores in California to solar power beginning in May. The first stores involved in the project will be in Laguna Niguel and Visalia. Twenty-four of Kohl's 80 California stores will immediately convert, and the company is seeking permits and approvals for another 40 stores in the state. Kohl's management said the company's initial solar foray will generate more than 35 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.
Kohl's has contracted with SunEdison, a solar energy service provider in Maryland to undertake the project. Constructing and activating each California Kohl's solar conversion will take approximately 12 weeks. The first two stores will be completed by August, and all solar locations in California will be finalized by the end of 2008.
:: Central Valley Business Times
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35 million kilowatt-hours? That's 35 gigawatt hours! I'm going to call "math error" on this.
This is awesome, how can we get all Target and Walmart stores in Florida to join Kohl's.
Its awesome that Kohl's is taking the lead to adopt solar energyin California. Now how can I get Target and Walmart stores in Florida to do the same?
This makes perfect sense!
1. Does anybody know how much Kw a rooftop Kohl's solar panels would generate? Like the one seen in the picture.
2. I believe that every big box store like this where the sun shines on the roof, must get a set up like the one pictured. Think of every Wal-Mart and other large chains installing solar panels. It would power the store almost completely and may even feed back a large proportion of energy back to the grid.
3. I think there must be legislation for Wal-Mart, for example, that they MUST install solar panels on all new openings. It just makes sense financially and environmentally.
Why must we legislate this, Matt Damon?
Why must you use the gov't to effect change? Would you like it if the gov't told you what to do? What if they told you that you couldn't say certain things or post on blogs?
I was wondering about the amount of energy they are producing here - is that for all of the stores combined? I have no idea how much energy a store that size uses, but is this enough to cover 100% of their electricity needs?
When I look at all the commercial buildings from an airplane, I can only think "how much energy could be produced if 10-20% of that roof space was used for solar panels?" I think Kohl's is doing a great thing here, and I hope others follow suit. If I remember right, I think I have seen an article about WalMart experimenting with solar, as well as a couple of other retailers.
I think Home Depot would be a good company to use solar as well, especially since they are in the solar business in select regions.
Now how about some panels on the roofs of all those trucks? Make delivery trucks hybrids, and have them at peast partially power themselves. That would reduce a huge amount to the environmental problems caused by shipping things that can't be made locally.
California offers 50% cash back on industrial scale solar systems, they also have the highest electricity rates in the country. So systems built in California have a short payback period compared to those built in other states. New Jersey is offering 80% back. If you want this to happen in Florida you are going to need to subsidize the industry like we do for oil right now.
LD--- For a treehugger I’m pretty right wing. I go back and forth between libertarian and green party thought patterns. Frankly I don’t want people to tell me what to do, which is why I am against the current republican party (what happened to small government and fiscal responsibility?). The problem with being a libertarian is the assumption that everyone can take care of themselves. Frankly, a lot of people are stupid. New technologies like this have to be pushed because people don’t understand how important they are. If we didn’t have a government sponsored highway program everyone would still be riding horses. If you look at the rest of the world, every first world nation is sponsoring green technology. That is why we went from the worlds number one producer of solar panels to number seven I believe. The fact that we refuse to legislate efficiency is the reason it is illegal to sell American made cars in most foreign countries (they don’t meet emissions standards). If we are going to keep the economy strong we need a push to get our industries moving.
Maybe Kohls could let a little sunlight actually fall inside their stores? I guess not much of their energy bill is spent on lighting, but those panels take a fair bit to manufacture. Besides, wouldn't it be nice to go shopping in the sunlight again?
LD - Walmart isn't a person. Of course a government can, and must legislate the way business is done. Walmart is not by the people for the people. I like that government sets clean air standards, clean water standards. I like that the governement tells me it's not o.k. to leave my trash on the sidewalk, or use dynamite to fish.
Wouldn't it be a better idea to build stores that are easier to access by public transit and which have less parking? As long as big-box stores require a car to access, these chains are not environmentally friendly no matter how many solar panels they put on the roof.
I don't think there is a terrible issue in government regulation with solar power on roofs. The government currently regulates every aspect of a buildings manufacture (it's called the Building Code) to insure the people's safety. I think toxic emmisions and global warming would fall under "safety issue". If all new building or new roof installations were mandated to include solar panels, slowly over time, the panels could safely be brought on line allowing the industry to grow and bring the price of solar panels down.
http://www.sunedison.com/images/press/092607-kohls.pdf