Aldi supermarkets to be powered by renewable energy

The supermarket major’s Australian operations will be powered with renewable energy, after a landmark partnership deal.

Aldi currently has 555 stores across Australia. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Supermarket giant Aldi will power its Australian operations with renewable energy by the end of 2021 after signing new 10-year offtake deals with major wind farms in Victoria and NSW.

The power purchase agreements are with Tilt Renewables’ Dundonnell wind farm near Mortlake in Victoria and Ratch’s Collector wind farm in NSW’s Southern Tablelands.

Up to 200 stores and four distribution centres will also have rooftop solar installations in place by the end of 2020 in a partnership with developer Epho.

The Tilt deal adds to existing contracts in place with Snowy Hydro and the Victorian government for the Dundonnell facility, which has been hit by a set of technical issues as the market operator works to integrate renewables into the grid.

Tilt said the 10-year deal showed there was still affordable pricing for corporates despite the fall-off in offtake deals in recent times.

“Our approach is build it and see who is interested in the output and so by having some merchant capacity available in these projects we can respond to interest from the likes of Aldi,” Tilt chief executive Deion Campbell told The Australian.

Still, the renewables provider said Dundonnell was a learning experience with the wind farm its fourth major wind project in Australia but the first that had run into grid issues.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen behaviour from the Australian Energy Market Operator that we’re seeing. And so we need to understand that and continue working with them to resolve the issues.”

Tilt expects it will take several more months of modelling work with AEMO before it reaches full production.

Aldi Australia has also written to its business partners requesting they “set their own science-based emissions targets by the end of 2024. Aldi currently has 555 stores and eight distribution centres spread across its Australian operations.