Walgreens and Chicago-based solar developer SoCore Energy say they will build more than 200 new solar installations at Walgreens drugstores throughout California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. The drugstore chain says the expansion will bring the number of completed solar installations at its locations to more than 350.
Walgreens will host the solar arrays and SoCore Energy will own, operate and maintain them. The two companies have collaborated on multi-location solar building projects in the past.
‘I commend Walgreens and SoCore on this innovative partnership and the strong commitment shown by these two Chicago companies to renewable energy,’ says Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. ‘These companies are demonstrating what we in Chicago know to be true – that environmentally friendly business is good business and that there are real economic opportunities associated with the new technologies and advances that are associated with the greening of our cities.’
Responding to the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge, Walgreens says it has committed to a chain-wide 20% energy reduction by 2020.
