Energy Efficiency | Page 276

No longer reserved for the Fortune 500, financial instruments like Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) are gaining popularity among smaller companies and public-sector entities looking to cost-effectively meet clean energy goals. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Walmart have paved the way for other, more risk averse but environmentally-minded entities to power their operations with renewable energy.

Facebook has announced it will finance construction of six large solar projects that will generate 437 megawatts of power for its Prineville, Oregon campus, home of three existing and two more planned data centers.

Lockheed Martin implemented more than 70 energy efficiency and carbon reduction projects in 2017 as the company heads towards a series of 2020 energy management goals. Progress was detailed in their recently released 2017 Sustainability Report

The 690-megawatt Gemini Solar Project, expected to be one of the largest solar projects in Nevada’s history, has been proposed by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. The project will be located on almost 44,000-acres of Bureau of Land Management supervised property approximately 25 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama has completed the addition of a 120-kW rooftop solar array, featuring more than 370 solar panels on one of the center’s newer buildings.

With the release of its company’s 2018 Sustainability Report, The Kroger Co. shared progress on a variety of sustainability goals, including two climate-related goals for Kroger Retail.

It's the weekend! Kick back and relax with these must-read energy stories from around the web:

Apple announced on July 12 the creation of a new investment fund in China to increase the use of renewable energy within its supply chain. The company will join 10 initial suppliers to invest nearly $300 million over the next four years into the China Clean Energy Fund, which will invest in and develop clean energy projects totaling more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy in China.

Facebook and Stanford University are among the first customers of a new venture created to lease electric buses to U.S. corporations, schools, and cities. The enterprise joins BYD Co., a Warren Buffet-backed manufacturer of electric vehicles in China

Walmart has become the first member of the Smart Energy Decisions’ Supply Chain Initiative. Developed as an extension of SED’s Renewable Energy Sourcing Initiative, this new program is designed to help early adopters of renewable energy engage with their supply chains while helping their suppliers by delivering renewable energy sourcing education, peer-to-peer networking, and connections to renewable energy suppliers.