US Tesco building to sport "world's largest" solar roof

Unbeknownst to most, we are lovers of our planet Earth and depend so much on solar power that we're often compared to the mighty Birdman. We cheered during Sanyo's CES keynote when it announced "Think GAIA," and now we come again to applaud Tesco. Joining forces with Solar Integrated Technologies, the British supermarket giant is set to build what it claims to be the "world's largest" solar roof on its new distribution center in California. By the end of the $13 million project, the roof will provide 1/5 of the facilities power and save "1,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year." With all that said, now we have to go and ponder whether or not this is enough for us to leave our beloved Trader Joe's.

[Ben O'Neill @ Jan 20th 2007 7:56AM]

Yay Tesco.

[Beddoes @ Jan 20th 2007 8:43AM]

Tesco won't be happy until they have taken over the world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfSi0D7KESk

[Mark @ Jan 20th 2007 8:46AM]

Of course don't forget the deadly chemicals used and hazardous waste generated in the manufacture of said solar cells. Every "green initiative" has a "rest of the story" component...

[David Gayler @ Jan 20th 2007 8:55AM]

And I bet the building won't stop working when the sun don't shine, so for every watt provided by solar power there has to be a watt of oil fired (or nuclear) power station standing by. Add the environmental manufacturing costs of all these cells and, yes, it does sound very Tesco - any BS will do as long as it gets coverage by their meeja chums.

[Doc. @ Jan 20th 2007 9:05AM]

Christ, if every Wal Mart did this, I betcha global warming would pretty much disappear. Still, hats off to Tesco on this one. Maybe some American corporations can learn from them.

[Galley @ Jan 20th 2007 9:27AM]

If I have to choose a product from two companies, one of which supports protecting the environment, and one of which does not, guess which product I'm gonna buy? Thank you, Tesco!

[Michael Lomsky @ Jan 20th 2007 9:52AM]

Sure it takes lots of nasty chemicals are needed to make solar cells; I made a simple one in college while getting my BS in EE. And, sure the solar cells only work during the day, but it's still a help. I don't think the solution to our energy issue; ie burning too many fossil fuels, and buying too many of them from folks who don't like us all that much; is a single fix. We are, hopefully, in the beginning of the process of converting from fossil fuels to a non-fossil fuel future. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is not the beginning of the end, it is merely the end of the beginning. The way I see it, is that we recently moved from the wood age to the coal/whale oil age. Then, we switched to the petroleum/coal/fission age. We're, hopefully, at the end of that now, and we are witnessing the transition to something a bit cleaner than those three. Sure solar is not the only fix, nor is wind, but using both of them will help us get off of the dirtier 3. So, Go Tesco, Go Walmart, go everyone who's helping the transition.

[Thomas S @ Jan 20th 2007 10:19AM]

As an EE in the power industry I can safely say that unless solar cells become 90% efficient, the only future we have is in the nuclear industry. We are building plants right now that convert the radioactive waste from fission plants from being harmful for 10's of thousands of years to a few hundred. The next step is fussion plants that will be online somewhere around 2050. (test plant is in france right now) To be honest no one in the industry will ever trust solar when you can make money 24/7 on other technology. But let people go ahead and feel good by wasting money on those panels!

[Mark @ Jan 20th 2007 11:26AM]

Why are people in the power industry so negative of alternate energy? Put simply, they don't like competition even if it only effects a tiny percentage of their revenue. To be honest solar will never be mainstream, but to say you are wasting money is complete misinformation especially considering the rising costs of existing energy.

[sdean @ Jan 20th 2007 11:15AM]

ya, don't leave Trader Joes

Tesco is the Wall-Mart of Europe

[RikF @ Jan 20th 2007 11:52AM]

Actually, Asda is the WallMart of Europe!

[Maff @ Jan 20th 2007 1:45PM]

Actually, Wal-mart is the Wal-mart of Europe since they now own ASDA

[sdean @ Jan 20th 2007 1:50PM]

i know that wall-mart bought asda, But they haven't done anything with it, so far they have left it exactly the same as it was not stepping in at all. Tesco has similar business practices to wal-mart (is there 1 l or 2) that is to go in and create a bunch of stores to starve everything else out and then close down all but 1 store to unload employees and other such bad business practices.

[Dmented7 @ Jan 20th 2007 1:53PM]

Ya, but Rifk probably knew that.
This is obviously a publicity stunt,but as far as the environment is concerned,... every little helps (he he.. pun intended)

[pvilleSE @ Jan 20th 2007 1:55PM]

Way to go Tesco, atleast someone with money is caring about the environment. It always pisses me off when I see a rich person buy a big SUV to drive around town by him/herself. If I had the money to buy whatever car I wanted I would buy the cleanest car that is being produced that can drive the distance needed.

Not all power companies are against green energy and solor energy, we have a co-op for our power and they offer green energy(including solar and wind) at a cent or 2 more a kWh.

For those criticizing solar panel users for using damaging power at night. The companies around here buy your extra power (at a higher price) during the day and sell it to others not using solar panels and then sell you energy at night. So you offset your dirty use at night buy producing clean energy for others.

[Jon @ Jan 20th 2007 2:09PM]

Trader Joes ? Try Whole Foods ..

[Shaun @ Jan 20th 2007 2:27PM]

Perhaps they wouldn't need solar panels at all if they didn't ship products from California to the UK in the first place and sold more locally produced produce in their stores cutting down on their biggest pollution source...transport.

[Jess Sightler @ Jan 21st 2007 2:19PM]

Yeah, why does Tesco have a US distribution center, anyway? I know there were some rumors some time back of them opening US stores, but I didn't think anything had come of them.

[E @ Jan 21st 2007 3:57PM]

Great idea. Though someone mentioned the environmental cost of making the cells. Good point, but as things stand now, it's just as important to end our dependance on Middle Eastern oil. Not to mention the fact that oil *will* run out, so think of the environmental effect the resulting wars will have when it starts to run out and we begin fighting over the last of it.