Kohl's is a department store.  Not a grocery store.

Otherwise, good news all around.

Here's the neat trick. For every square meter of rooftop shaded by solar panels saves an additional 20-40% on cooling costs for the area of rooftop shaded. As department stores are fairly large businesses they pay peak-hour costs for power used for air conditioning. So costs actually decline in two areas.

Now if we could just get them to shade the parking lots with solar panels also. It's freaking HOT out there on a summers day.

Put the Carbon Back

kohl's' purchase is by far the largest purchase of DG solar ever, and really needs to be celebrated.  an announcement like this would have been unthinkable a year ago.  we've come a long way.

Get Some Sun: www.votesolar.org

AS news like this gets out to CEOs of other businesses of all kinds with expanses of roof surface, and given the safe assumption that they all have electricity and other energy bills, we should see more and more installations of this kind. The same CEOs could just as easily, and even more cheaply and effectively, install solar domestic water heater systems.    

This is why I strongly favor the distributed generation of electricity, and the end of the mentality of 'electricity as commodity', something owned by someone else, which you can only rent on a monthly basis.  

Another big plus is at least lessening the increase in, and perhaps flattening out Carbon emissions.

Pangolin's point that it shades otherwise open and exposed roof surfaces is a good one.  The wish for parking covered by PV is also interesting:  the top parking level of the parking garage at Univ. Texas Medical Branch-Galveston is covered with PV, creating shade, reducing heat gain, and making clean electricity.  A praiseworthy act, which could be the start of a valuable trend.  

Very good news.  

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

In addition, even their store-brand products are individually wrapped in plastic.  And yes, this COULD be recycled, if it weren't for the fact that the employees don't separate the plastic from the trash, and many bags contain stickers, and are made of different types.

So go ahead and praise Kohl's for green power - but until they require their vendors to pack more items per box, and limit/discontinue the use of plastic, they're no greener than Wal*mart.

Walmart is of course full of crap. They are putting a limited amount of solar on a few stores to try to look less evil. But come on, it's Walmart. If they'd just give up burning puppies or something they'd get more credit.