Retail Goes Solar
April 30, 2007
- Jack Uldric - The Motley Fool
Advocates of solar power were
given additional reasons to be bullish about the industry's
long-term prospects this past week after two large
retailers -- Tiffany & Co (NYSE:
TIF)
and Kohl's Corp (NYSE: KSS)
-- announced plans to install major solar power projects.
Of the two, Kohl's is the more
significant deal. According to company officials,
the giant retailer will immediately convert 24 of
its 80 stores in California beginning in May, and
within a year it plans to convert more than 75% of
its department stores in the state. When completed,
the solar installations, which will be set up and
serviced by SunEdison, could generate
close to 30 megawatts of power.
Tiffany's project will deploy
1.3 megawatts of solar power (the equivalent of powering
about 1,300 homes) at two of the company's distribution
centers. When operational, the solar arrays, which
will be supplied by SunPower (Nasdaq:
SPWR),
will contribute an estimated 30% of the distribution
centers' electrical load at peak demand times.
In both instances, the companies
will need time to recover their upfront investments.
Therefore, I wouldn't encourage investors of Kohl's
or Tiffany's to get too excited about the news from
an immediate investment perspective. For investors
interested in solar, though, the fact that such large
retailers have now joined the likes of Google
(Nasdaq: GOOG),
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
and Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT)
in installing large amounts of solar power is welcome
news because it strongly suggests that businesses
are no longer turning to solar power just to improve
their environmental image -- they are doing it because
it makes economic sense.
Interested in reading more about
solar power? Check out these articles:
Fool contributor Jack
Uldrich doesn't own stock in any of the companies
mentioned in this article. The Fool has a strict disclosure
policy.
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