UK - Sainsbury’s to buy renewable electricity direct from Scottish Wind Farm

Sainsbury's has signed a deal with small Scottish company - A7 Lochhead, to take the electricity from a 3 wind turbine energy project near Glasgow which has already been granted planning consent.

Sainsbury's, advised by Utilix says that the wind energy project would provide for the equivalent of 1 percent of the retailer's electricity requirements. Big users of electricity are currently desperate to get their hands on green electricity. Customers and shareholders are crying out for the stuff but there is just not enough of it to go around. So what better way of securing it than doing a deal directly with a wind energy generator.

What is rather misleading however is Sainsbury's claiming that “this is where the electricity is being produced specifically for our use”. This rather suggests that the wind farm has been developed and built specifically for Sainsbury's when in fact it would not have made any difference to the likelihood of the wind farm going ahead if Sainsbury's had not struck the deal - as it would have been bought by RWE npower direct or another of the big 6 utilities. Also because the electricity goes into the local grid network it will supply local homes in the area around Lochhead - not the Sainsbury's stores across the UK.

Despite the rather dubious PR messages being issued there can be no doubt that demand for green renewable electricity is positive and the more demand the better. If, however Sainsbury's really want to make a difference, they should be looking more seriously at on-site renewable energy generation. It is much more difficult from a red tape perspective, but new renewable energy generation on Sainsbury's land is what I call innovation as opposed to piggy backing on a wind energy project that was going to go ahead anyway.

For more information, please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net