Supermarket giant the Woolworths Group has inked a renewable energy purchase agreement which will see around 30 percent of the company’s New South Wales energy needs sourced from a wind farm near Yass.
Woolworths, Australia’s biggest supermarket chain and one of the country’s top electricity users, has announced that it will source a whopping 195,000 MwH of energy yearly from the Bango Wind Farm, which is under construction near Yass in the Riverina area of NSW.
This power purchase will supply 30 per cent of Woolworths’ NSW electricity needs, equivalent to powering 108 stores, or 34,000 households.
Greenpeace Australia welcomed the announcement with the group’s REenergise campaign director Lindsay Soutar describing it as concrete action.
“Woolworths committed last year to make the switch to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025 - and we’re big fans of the company’s announcement today of a substantial wind power purchase from the Bango Wind Farm,” she said.
“In committing to source its renewable energy from new-build wind and solar power, like the Bango wind farm, Woolworths isn’t just speeding its own transition to one hundred percent renewable electricity - the company is also helping to bring significant amounts of new clean, reliable renewable energy into the system.”
Woolworths’ renewable energy purchase partnership supports over 100 jobs in the wind farm’s construction and operation for the Yass region.
“Renewable energy is already getting the job done, and big supermarkets like Woolworths making big wind power purchases shows that renewables can power even the largest and most complex businesses,” Soutar said.
Woolworths, Coles and ALDI, have all committed to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, meaning that all of the country’s top supermarkets will be wind and solar-powered within the next five years.