Popular mid-Atlantic restaurant and convenience store chain, Sheetz, has come to a long-term renewable energy supply agreement with Constellation, enough to power nearly 70% of the chain’s Pennsylvania facilities with renewable energy.
Sheetz will receive approximately 110 million kilowatt hours of energy per year from the long-term power purchase agreements for the 55MW of Pennsylvania-based solar that Constellation is procuring, with that energy matched by Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) sourced from renewable facilities located throughout the U.S.
Constellation is also purchasing the electricity generated by the installations via separate power purchase agreements. All of these projects are expected to achieve commercial operation by January 2024.
To simplify the purchase, Sheetz will use a solution that builds off of the Constellation Offsite Renewables (CORe) retail power product, which enables the development of, and increases businesses’ access to, renewable energy projects by removing the significant hurdles associated with traditional offsite power purchase agreements. By combining the simplified contracting and aggregation process of CORe with the commitment and involvement from sustainability-minded companies, Constellation is able to offer more customers the ability to demonstrate their support of large-scale, offsite renewable energy projects.
“Sheetz is dedicated to being a responsible steward of our environment,” said Travis Sheetz, president and CEO at Sheetz. “Through this purchase agreement and partnership with Constellation, Sheetz will be able to power more than 160 stores and approximately 40 other facilities with renewable energy, significantly reducing our environmental impact in Pennsylvania.”
The 55MW of new projects across Pennsylvania also represent a significant investment in solar, at least when compared to what the state has installed so far. According to the Solar Energy Industries association, Pennsylvania has installed 855MW of solar to date, with the vast majority of that capacity achieving operation since the start of 2020.
The state is projected to add 1,788MW over the next 5 years, which ranks 21st in the nation over that time, but represents a more than 200% increase over the amount of capacity installed thus far.
Those 1,788MW of expected new solar include the capacity from the 127 MW CPV Maple Hill solar installation, which is expected to be one of the largest installations in Pennsylvania. In March 2021, the state’s government executed a 15-year fixed-price supply agreement for seven new solar energy arrays, totaling 191 MW, all of which are being built by Lightsource bp, which also will own and operate the capacity. The move represented one of the largest solar commitments by any state government in the country, and the portfolio is expected to go into operation on Jan. 1, 2023.
