Stop & Shop Said Looking at Wind Power

Ahold banner Stop & Shop is planning to build a windmill at a shopping center it owns in Gloucester, Mass., according to a published report. The structure, Stop & Shop’s first windmill, would serve as a pilot project in a wider sustainable energy initiative undertaken by the chain to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2015.

Although three other commercial wind projects are slated for the area, including a turbine considered by Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods to run its seafood-processing plant, Stop & Shop’s windmill could be the first built, the Gloucester Daily Times reported, adding that the other projects have been delayed by the recession and Whole Foods’ ongoing feasibility study. Stop & Shop is also running such a study.

Michele Harrison, a local attorney shepherding the Quincy, Mass.-based grocer through the process of obtaining the necessary permits from the Zoning Board of Appeal and the City Council, told the newspaper that the grocer was mulling a wind turbine in the 250-foot range, although the exact height had not been decided.

Tentative plans call for the windmill to be built in what is currently a parking lot on the west side of the company’s 63,000-square-foot store, Harrison said. Gloucester was apparently chosen for its access to consistent breezes coming off the Atlantic Ocean, according to the report.

Stop & Shop spokeswoman Faith Weiner was quoted by the newspaper as saying that if the initial project was successful, the company could install windmills at more of its 375 stores.
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