REI Goes Solar in San Francisco

San Francisco REI has installed solar arrays on three stores in the San Francisco Bay area, according to San Francisco Business Times. The installations, in San Francisco, San Carlos and Santa Rosa, bring the outdoor apparel and gear retailer more than halfway to its goal of outfitting 10% of its stores with solar systems.

The rooftop panels atop the San Francisco store will generate up to 78,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 19% of the store’s annual energy needs. The other two locations, San Carlos and Santa Rosa, went solar earlier this year, and is generating up to 40% and 38% of the stores’ energy needs, respectively. The installations were done by Blue Oak Energy, Davis, Calif.

REI is on track to complete solar-panel installations at five other stores: three in Oregon and two more in California. In all, 11 of the company's 105 stores in 27 states will feature as result of the project this year.

Combined, the installations are expected to generate a total of 1.1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.