Aldi To Install Over 95,000 Solar Panels
Aldi is to install approximately 96,000 solar panels across its stores and distribution centres before the end of 2017, it has announced today.
The supermarket has already installed more than 85,000 solar panels on all nine of its regional distribution centres and more than 275 of its stores across the UK, generating more than 17,500 MWh of electricity a year.
Today, as part of Solar Independence Day, it has announced that it will extend that to more than 50 additional stores before the end of the year, bringing its total store investment in solar to almost £17million and enabling it to generate enough electricity, per year, to power more than 6,200 medium households and save more than 8,100 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the environment.
Mary Dunn, Communications Director at Aldi UK, said: "We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and harnessing the power of solar energy is just one of the ways we're doing that.
"Installing our 96,000th solar panel means we will be able to save around 8,100 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year "“ that's enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall more than 45 times over.
"It also means that we are using all of our distribution centres and more than a third of our stores across the UK to generate electricity from solar power, marking a further significant step in our journey to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020, while continuing to grow."
As part of this commitment, Aldi began a three-year programme in 2015 to replace all its chest freezers in the UK to more environmentally-friendly models.
Last year, it was also one of the first signatories of the Courtauld 2025 initiative, which is a pledge to work with suppliers to reduce food waste and associated greenhouse gases by a fifth per person by 2025.
Meanwhile, a third of stores now use heat recovered from fridges, chillers and freezers to further reduce energy consumption, allowing Aldi to sell excess energy created back to the National Grid.
Mary Dunn added: "While sustainability is important to us, this isn't just about reducing our impact on the environment.
"Efficiency is at the core of our business model. We can offer our customers the lowest prices without sacrificing on quality because we use green initiatives to generate our own electricity and reduce waste."
