The need for these kinds of clean energy initiatives is becoming “unquestionably urgent” as the climate crisis accelerates, said Edwin Cowen, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University. Many renewable energy experts point to solar as a relatively simple solution to cut down on costs and help rein in fossil fuel emissions, but the companies point to several roadblocks - regulations, labor costs and structural integrity of the rooftops themselves - that are preventing more widespread adoption. Why record-high gas prices won't be solved by drilling more oil in the USĬNN reached out to five of the top US retailers - Walmart, Kroger, Home Depot, Costco and Target - to ask: Why not invest in more rooftop solar? Prices for gas and diesel fuel, over $5 a gallon, are displayed at a petrol station in Monterey Park, California on March 4, 2022. ![]() ![]() “Now is the time to lean into local renewable energy production, and there’s no better place than the roofs of America’s big-box superstores.” “Every rooftop in America that isn’t producing solar energy is a rooftop wasted as we work to break our dependence on fossil fuels and the geopolitical conflicts that come with them,” Johanna Neumann, senior director for Environment America’s campaign for 100% Renewable, told CNN. That’s roughly the size of three football fields and enough space to support solar energy that could power the equivalent of 200 homes, the report said. The average Walmart store, for example, has 180,000 square feet of rooftop, according to the report. Leveraging the full rooftop solar potential of these superstores would generate enough electricity to power nearly 8 million average homes, the report concluded, and would cut the same amount of planet-warming emissions as pulling 11.3 million gas-powered cars off the road. (Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP) (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images) Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty ImagesĬould Russia's war kick-start a renewable-energy revolution? It depends where in the world you lookĪs of February 2021, IKEA had 54 solar arrays installed across 90% of its US locations.īig-box stores and shopping centers have enough roof space to produce half of their annual electricity needs from solar, according to a report from nonprofit Environment America and research firm Frontier Group. Whitelee, operated by Scottish Power, is the UK's largest onshore wind farm - its 215 turbines are said to be able to generate up to 539 megawatts of electricity. ![]() Wind turbines operated by ScottishPower Renewables, are pictured at Whitelee Onshore Windfarm on Eaglesham Moor, southwest of Glasgow, on January 17, 2022.
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