Americana “big box” stores could host around 62.3 gigawatts (GW) of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity — enough to generate enough electricity to provide for the equivalent needs of roughly 7 million US households — according to a new report from Environment America Research & Policy Center.
Considering that big box stores, grocery stores, etc, use roughly 5% of all of the electricity used in the US — and also the fact that there’s more than 4.5 billion square feet (cumulatively) of rooftop space on these buildings that is well suited to solar energy installations — such an approach to solar energy development has a lot of potential.
