The Rise in Supermarket Solar Panels

Yesterday, the Stop & Shop supermarket chain announced complete installation of solar panels on eight of its stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. We're guessing this news will elicit one of three reactions: satisfaction that another company has signed on to the reusable energy cause; disinterest because so many already have; or disbelief that any of these mounted plates are worth what they preach.

Many of us have seen the price comparison of what a standard home will save with Energy Star equipment, but imagine what a grocery store, open 24-hours with a 500K-sq-ft paneled roof, can save. Many big name grocery stores like ShopRite, Costco, Walmart, Safeway and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market are starting to see the benefit, too, but it didn't come without technological tweaking and decades of convincing.

It all started back in the 1860s -- actually, right around the time commercial refrigeration was invented -- when a man named Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel started playing with solar cells.
He realized that certain materials have the ability to release electrons when they're hit with rays of photons, or sunlight. This naturally sparked an electric current, but its application was only about 1% efficient -- so, though this discovery did not go unnoticed, as even back then people realized that coal and petroleum may one day run scarce, for now, it was the Industrial Revolution and coal was flowing like readily available champagne.

The first successful application was a sort of back-up generator for satellites, starting with Vanguard I in 1958. Then the 1970s brought along the oil embargo of '73 and the oil crisis of '79; suddenly people started looking around for those solar cells again. In 2009, solar powered currents improved to 40% efficiency; in March 2010, 85 to 95%. A battle between industry advantage (rising oil prices) and clean energy incentives (state subsidies) have respectively stalled and driven alternate energy development for years. But besides massive solar panel power plants, in the 21st century we started to see individual companies saving their own energy, keeping track of their own carbon footprint.

One of the first grocery stores to mount a panel was Safeway Inc. on 23 California outposts in 2007; one of the largest panels came at 500K square feet and was put on top of a Fresh & Easy in 2008. Stop & Shop's newly paneled stores are said to counteract the carbon footprint of 153 homes, annually. They're also collaborating with Connecticut Clean Energy to install a fuel cell, which will account for 90% of the store's electricity. But why are panels only popping up in select states?

Weather is certainly taken into account when deciding what yield a panel will produce in any given area, but this is not typically the deciding factor for installing a panel, explains Thom Wright of Bask Power. Along with a 30% tax credit, some states offer rebates, he told Slashfood, which are listed on dsireusa.org. So Stop & Shop would be more financially inclined to start installing panels in say New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, where the investment return is high -- and the panels would end up paying for themselves after 7 to 8 years as opposed to 25 -- instead of perhaps New Hampshire, where there is no rebate.

The company hopes to add panels to its 375 stores across the Northeast, we assume once the rebates start coming in. That's enough to counteract the carbon footprint of a small city, or approximately 7,000 homes.