Car hire company Hertz and furniture retailer IKEA are moving ahead with major solar photovoltaic installations in the US.
Hertz announced yesterday that it will start construction on two new solar installations at Newark and John F. Kennedy International Airports, which serve New York city and its surroundings.
As part of its ongoing solar energy programme, the two new installations will generate more than 800,000 kWh of renewable energy a year, saving some 581 metric tons of carbon emissions.
This year will see the company complete solar installations in Denver, Los Angeles and Boston among others, and has just finished a solar system at its Park Ridge, New Jersey headquarters that will generate 300,000 kWh a year.
By the end of last year, Hertz had completed systems at seven car and equipment rental locations and plans to produce, in total, more than 3.1 million kWh a year across all its US sites, saving 2138 metric tons of carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, IKEA has completed its latest solar installation at its store in Houston, Texas that will produce 1,152,464 kWh of clean electricity annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 795 tons.
The Houston store is the 19th installation completed with 20 more currently underway in the US with contractor REC Solar.
IKEA has now installed solar panels on 89% of its US locations with a total generating capacity of 38 MW.
