Macy’s celebrates Earth Day with solar deployments

The nation’s largest department store has increased its deployment of renewable energy.



Macy's Inc. said it installed 21 solar energy systems during the past year at Macy's and Bloomingdale's locations in seven states, totaling 15 meg-awatts. The deployments were done in partnership with SunPower. Elec-tricity generated by the new solar power systems will ultimately be sold to others.



In 2016, Macy's ranked fourth among corporations nationwide for in-stalled solar according to Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). About 70% of the 102 solar power systems in the Macy's and Blooming-dale's renewable energy portfolio feature SunPower's high-efficiency technology.



In addition to solar systems, SunPower also provided Macy's with battery storage systems at three stores in Southern California. The energy storage technology is expected to help those locations further manage energy costs by offsetting demand charges incurred by commercial customers.



"Working with SunPower, we have been able to maximize the value of unused roof areas at our stores and fulfillment centers across the country by deploying the company's high efficiency solar technology that creates more energy in less space." said Chuck Abt, senior VP of operations for Macy's.



Nineteen of the 21 new systems feature SunPower’s Helix roof product, a fully-integrated rooftop solar solution for commercial customers. The platform is a pre-engineered, modular solution that is built to last, max-imizes power production, and can be installed nearly three times faster than competing technology, enabling customers to scale their solar pro-grams quickly with minimal business disruption, according to SunPower.



Macy's financed the majority of the SunPower solar systems on its stores through power purchase agreements, allowing it to buy power at competi-tive rates that act as a hedge against future utility rate increases with no upfront capital cost. Macy's does not own the renewable energy credits associated with most of the SunPower solar energy systems installed on its facilities.