Home Depot announces first major investment in renewable energy

 The Home Depot® today announced its first major investment in a wind-powered renewable energy project.

The energy purchased from the wind farm is enough to power 100 Home Depot stores for a year while also providing $150,000in local community benefits.

The Los Mirasoles Wind Farm, owned and operated by EDP Renewables North America, is located in Hidalgo and Starr Counties, northeast of McAllen, Texas. Through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA), The Home Depot's annual purchase of 50 megawatts (MW) is a fifth of the wind farm's 250 MW capacity. The farm utilizes Vestas V110 2.0 MW wind turbines and produces enough power to provide more than 70,000 average U.S. homes with clean electricity each year. 

The Home Depot partnered with EDP Renewables for the Texas development in 2016. EDP Renewables operates globally with 41 wind farms across North America.  

As a part of its renewable energy initiative, The Home Depot's goal is to procure 135 megawatts of various renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, by the end of 2020. 

In addition to the wind farm, the company also procures energy from solar farms in Delaware and Massachusetts with a combined annual output of 14.5 million kilowatt hours (kWh). More than 150 stores and distribution centers utilize on-site fuel cells that produce roughly 85 percent of the electricity each store needs to operate.

For more on The Home Depot's wind energy project, visit: https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/texas-wind-farm-renewable-energy

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,278 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2015, The Home Depot had sales of $88.5 billion and earnings of $7.0 billion. The Company employs more than 385,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index. 

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SOURCE The Home Depot