According to the companies, SunEdison has the rights to deploy solar energy systems at more than 200 shopping centers, covering up to an estimated 30 million square feet, located in 24 states and in Puerto Rico. Potential capacity of the program is reportedly up to 259 MW.

The companies say that once a system is operational, Developers Diversified will be able to purchase energy for common area uses. In addition, shopping center tenants can benefit and realize energy savings by opting to purchase the power generated through the program at rates lower than retail energy rates.

“Developers Diversified is a forward-thinking real estate company— bringing clean solar energy to its properties for the benefit of its tenants and the environment through the largest distributed generation program of its kind. It’s a way for Developers Diversified and its tenants to reduce operating costs. Furthermore, a typical-sized solar energy system in the program will avoid an estimated 10 million pounds of carbon dioxide pollution,” said Brian Jacolick, General Manager, Americas for SunEdison.

Developers Diversified Realty says it currently owns and manages approximately 720 retail operating and development properties in 45 states, plus Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia and Canada, totaling approximately 159 million square feet. Developers Diversified is a self- administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company that acquires, develops, leases and manages shopping centers.

Source: Clean Edge News

‘eKOCool’, a chest cooler, developed internally by the Indian arm of the Atlanta based multinational, operates exclusively through solar energy, with no other electricity source required to operate it. It has a capacity to store two crates, which contains 48 glass bottles of 300ml each. That’s not all. It can even charge your mobile phone and light up your home.

The innovation gives Coca-Cola a competitive edge to tap new rural markets and ramp up sales of a product which is always best served chilled. Introduced in select rural markets earlier this summer, it has already improved sales dramatically and company officials expect orders of the product from other countries in the system as well.

Says Asim Parekh, VP technical, Coca Cola India: “The eKOCool is an outcome of our technical team’s persistence to use renewable energy for operating cooling equipment. The rural markets pose challenges in expansion as a huge swathe of the rural belt is not yet covered by the power grid hence remains without electricity or has low power. This challenge has now been overcome by Coca-Cola’s new innovation, which will give us a competitive edge as well as a first mover advantage.”

The product loaded into the cooler early morning or previous night is ready to be served chilled in the morning. The cooling equipment brings benefits to the retailer too in terms of saving on the electricity bill and cost of ice.

A pilot project under which 20 such coolers were placed in rural areas near Agra (Uttar Pradesh) has been successfully completed this summer, and has already shown results. Sales from these outlets have jumped nearly five times, a company official said.

Sakhidevi, who operates a general store in Sarvatpur near Agra, says: “We don’t have electricity in the village for hours. Since I installed the solar cooler, my sales have gone up.”

The journey to develop the solar cooler started in May 2009, when Coca Cola India CEO Atul Singh was visiting a rural market in UP and found that many outlets stocking the company’s products did not have any chilling equipment. The outlets were operating out of ice boxes with little ice, since either coolers or electricity were not available.

Says Sunil Gulati, GM Technical, who developed the design; “After evaluating various options, we chose solar energy to eliminate the need to depend on grid-based electricity completely, and to be environment friendly.”