Wal-Mart Announces 100th California Store Powered By Solar Panels

Wal-Mart announced that the College Avenue branch in San Diego is the retail company’s 100^th store in California using rooftop solar panels to generate power, which helps the company achieve its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy. The company said its solar power initiative in California aims to generate as much as 70 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy each year, help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 21,700 metric tons per year, and generate 10–30 percent of each store’s electricity needs. Aside from its sustainability benefits, the solar power initiative helped generate 3,000 contract construction jobs, with SolarCity hiring 1,213 employees since announcing the Walmart projects in September 2010.