Pressure Turned Up On Coles To Commit To 100% Renewables

Close to three-quarters of Australian shoppers want Coles to switch to 100% renewable electricity according to results from a new poll.

Polling commissioned by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and carried out by UComms found 73.4% of respondents think Coles should follow Woolworths’ lead and commit to 100% renewables for its electricity requirements.

“The message from Australian shoppers is loud and clear – they want Coles to commit to 100% renewable energy, like its supermarket rivals Woolworths and ALDI,” said Lindsay Soutar, Director of REenergise. “Coles is already running 30% of its operations on renewable energy and it wouldn’t take long for them to take the lead in the supermarket race to renewables.”

The poll also revealed 55% of respondents would be more likely to buy a product from a retailer that sourced its electricity from 100% renewable sources.

REenergise is a Greenpeace campaign calling on some of Australia’s biggest electricity consumers to make the switch to 100% renewable electricity. The REenergise rankings currently place Coles at number 34.

At number 1 is Aldi, which has committed to power all its stores and warehouses with 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2021. According to the company, six Distribution Centres and 250 stores will have had solar panels installed by the end of this year. Aldi has also entered into two 10-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with two wind farms anticipated to generate more than 180,000MWh of electricity annually.

Woolworths currently sits at no. 23 on the REenergise rankings. Woolworths has committed to powering its operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. To date, the company has installed solar panels at 126 stores and 2 distribution centres with a total capacity of 14MW.

Coles And Renewable Energy

Coles isn’t actually running on 30% renewables-based electricity yet – but it’s in the pipeline.

According to its most recent sustainability report released in September, the 2019/20 financial year saw Coles commit to a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) involving three solar plants located near Wagga Wagga, Corowa and Junee (pictured above) in New South Wales. The PPA is expected to provide 10% of Coles’ national electricity needs.

Also in September, Coles announced it had entered into 10-year agreement with Queensland’s CleanCo. Under the agreement Coles will purchase 400 GWh of electricity annually. The Western Downs Green Power Hub and the MacIntyre Wind Farm will supply three quarters of that figure, with the remainder supported by CleanCo’s “low emissions portfolio”, which includes gas.

Coles also installed solar power systems at 37 supermarkets during the last financial year and added another two systems in July 2020, taking the total number of Coles supermarkets with solar panels installed to 69. Coles intends continuing with its supermarket solar rollout and PV will be included on all new stores. As well as its supermarkets, Coles has been installing solar on other Coles Group facilities; for example, 1,790 solar panels were installed on a fruit ripening facility in Melbourne.

According to Greenpeace, Coles ranked 12th on the list of the largest electricity users in Australia in 2018-19, consuming around 1% of the country’s electricity. Greenpeace says Coles going fully renewable would bring another 571 MW of new wind and solar power capacity online.