EDP Renováveis (EDPR), whose parent company EDP has China Three Gorges as its largest shareholder, will supply additional power to US retail giant Walmart, under a new agreement for 15 years.
The power will be produced by a 250 megawatts-peak (MWp) solar project that is being developed in Texas, United States, the Lisbon-based company said in a statement.
This Energy Purchase Agreement (CAE) complements the remaining corporate energy purchase contracts that Walmart already has with EDPR and that now reach 395 megawatts (MW) in large-scale solar and wind power, and about 50 MWp in distributed solar energy.
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The new project will have sufficient capacity to provide annually the equivalent of more than 27 thousand houses in Texas and “contributes with significant economic benefits to the region”, namely through payments to landowners, the Portuguese electricity company added.
During the lifetime of the project, which will be “several decades”, it is also estimated that an additional USD 42 million will be invested in local projects, benefiting schools, local infrastructure and other public services.
“This project will help build a stronger community, stronger energy network and contribute to our clean energy operational goals,” said Frank Palladino, Walmart’s vice president of renewable energy strategy.
Since 2018, Walmart has been working with EDP Renewables on both large-scale and distributed renewable electricity generation projects. On a large scale, Walmart purchases energy from the Bright Stalk and Harvest Ridge wind farms, which EDPR developed in Illinois, as well as from the Headwaters II wind farm in Indiana.
Already in the decentralized or distributed generation, EDPR and Walmart collaborated on a solar capacity of about 50 MWp distributed across 66 Walmarts locations that are managed and operated by EDPR.
EDPR is one of Texas’s leading promoters of renewable energy, with more than 1.2 GW of renewed capacity installed throughout the state, generating electricity equivalent to the consumption of more than 230,000 average households in the region. Texas is a strategic market in EDPR’s portfolio and the company has additional projects in advanced development.
