ALDI Australia moves to 100 per cent renewable electricity, hoping to get prices lower for shoppers

ALDI Australia has indicated prices could go even lower for shoppers after it has made a significant change to its operations.

ALDI Australia has indicated prices could go even lower for shoppers after it cleaned up its act and moved its operations to 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The German-backed bargain supermarket chain is six months ahead of schedule in the transition to using renewable power for its 570 stores, warehouses and offices.

It has achieved it through a network of solar panels installed on roofs and energy being supplied by two wind farms after it signed 10-year power purchase agreements with Tilt Renewables’ Dundonnell Wind Farm in western Victoria, and RATCHAustralia’s newest wind farm – Collector Wind Farm in NSW. It has also acquired market renewable energy certificates.

ALDI CEO Tom Daunt said shoppers could feel confident their weekly shop wasn’t costing the Earth.

“As the 67th biggest user of electricity in Australia we recognise the significant role we have to reduce our impact on the environment and contribute to a more sustainable future,” he said.

ALDI said its transition to renewables will prevent more than 274,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere, which accounts for 85 per cent of its total CO2 emissions.

It has also taken steps to reduce its total electricity usage in store with energy efficient

LED lights and is trialling natural refrigerant technology.

Tom Daunt, CEO of ALDI Australia. Picture: Britta Campion

ALDI’s Director of Customer Interactions Adrian Christie said its electricity bills have been “astronomical”, and it made commercial sense to switch to renewables, which could lead to cheaper prices.

“In the long run we do think it will help us reduce the total cost of goods, it all adds up from the label to the employee and the power we have to pay for, it will reduce our costs as a business and where ever we can we will pass that on to the consumer,” he said.

“That’s our ultimate goal, this decision is good for the environment and the consumer and their hip pocket.”

He said ALDI will work with its suppliers to see how they can “influence” them to switch over to renewable power as it reassesses its transport fleet to make its output cleaner.

“We are still not using clean energy there … we run the most modern fleet of vehicles but it’s not good enough and we hope electric vehicles will become an option we can consider,” he said.

ALDI at Nowra in NSW with solar panels on its roof. Picture: Supplied

The sustainable supermarket war continues, with Woolworths and Coles both making power purchase agreements to get them to 100 per cent renewable electricity.

Woolworths has vowed to power its entire operations with renewable power by 2025, as it continues its path to net positive carbon emissions by at least 2050.

This month, Woolworths announced it had partnered with CWP Renewables on a 10-year agreement to purchase power generated by a new Bango wind farm outside Yass in NSW.

The new-build wind farm is set to inject 195,000 megawatt hours of green electricity into the state’s energy grid annually.

It adds to Woolworths’ network of rooftop solar panels at around 140 locations nationally.

Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said: “Moving to 100 per cent renewable electricity is the right thing to do, and something a growing number of our customers, team members and shareholders expect us to lead on.”

Coles’ ‘Together to Zero’ plan aims to get its supermarkets powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity by the end of the 2025 financial year.

It hopes to deliver net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by signing two major agreements with energy companies ENGIE and Neoen.

Under the agreement with ENGIE, Coles will purchase renewable energy certificates from ENGIE’s Willogoleche wind Farm and Canunda wind farm, in South Australia.

It will also source part of its national electricity through a separate agreement with French energy producer Neoen, and their renewable power plants in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.