Nestlé uses wind at water bottling plant

   Two wind turbines were installed this week at the Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) bottling plant in Cabazon, Calif., which will provide 30 percent of the facility’s electricity.
   “Hosting wind turbines at our bottling plants is a critical step for Nestlé Waters to support the increased use of renewable energy,” said Michael Washburn, vice president of sustainability for NWNA, in a statement Tuesday. “This latest effort in conjunction with our partnership with Foundation Windpower is consistent with our practices to reduce our environmental footprint.”
   NWNA chose this location for its turbines, along the Interstate 10 corridor in southern California, because of the high wind potential. The two 1.6 megawatt GE wind turbines will produce an average of 12.9 million kilowatt hours annually, powering the equivalent of 1,100 U.S. homes. The project will also save 7,320 tons of CO₂ emissions, offsetting the equivalent emissions from 20,687 oil barrels, the company said.
   More American shippers and importers are installing large-scale wind turbines and solar-power systems at their facilities to use more renewable energy and reduce their emissions footprints.
   Last year, Kohl’s Department Stores installed a 2.4 megawatt solar-power project at its million-square-foot e-commerce distribution center in Edgewater, Md. Kohl’s current solar energy portfolio totals nearly 42 megawatts, generating more than 57,400 megawatt hours of electricity a year.
   Also last year, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of household cleaning products S.C. Johnson & Son activated two utility-scale wind turbines at its Waxdale factory, capable of producing about 8 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, or enough to power 700 homes annually, while Walmart erected a wind turbine at its distribution center in Red Bluff, Calif., capable of generating 2.2 million kilowatt hours of power, or 20 percent of the facility’s annual electricity use.