Retail giant Walmart has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) for a 180MW solar PV project in Texas, US.
Under a 15-year PPA, Walmart will offtake 162MW of the PV plant, and complement existing corporate PPA between the companies on 233MW of utility-scale solar and wind energy, as well as 36MW of distributed solar. This latest procurement brings the total renewables offtake between the companies to 395MW.
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“By providing meaningful economic benefits to local communities, including new local jobs, this project will help build a stronger community, a stronger energy grid as well as contribute toward our operational clean energy goals,” said Frank Palladino, VP of renewable energy strategy at Walmart.
This is the latest PPA secured from EDPR NA in March, which started construction on a 100MW solar PV plant in Illinois earlier this month, with solar financier and operator Volt Energy Utility. The developers secured a 15-year PPA offtake with technology giant Microsoft for that project.
Investment in 15 community solar projects
On top of the PPA in Texas with EDPR NA, Walmart has also invested in 19 solar projects under development across the US, including 15 community solar projects.
The retail giant partnered with renewables developer Pivot Energy through a tax equity investment for the construction, operation and maintenance of the solar portfolio.
Projects are located across five different states, Illinois, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, and California, while the combined capacity of the community solar projects will reach 72MW. The projects in Colorado (41MW) will be specifically designed to serve low and moderate-income households.
The portfolio of community solar projects is expected to be built in 2024 and 2025. Several of the community solar projects will include the development of agrivoltaics elements such as sheep grazing or drip irrigation to enhance the quality of the crop production.
Interest in agriPV projects from the community solar market has been on the rise in the US, with more and more community solar developers looking to better implement the dual-use of agriculture and solar PV.
This is not the first entrance in the community solar market for the retail giant, as Walmart signed a 50MW deal with developer Nexamp to buy energy credits from 23 community solar projects back in 2021.