Wal-mart Embracing Renewables, Shunning Power Utilities

I try to check out the Smart Grid News every day, as I feel that improvements here are the true enablers of the things that will ultimately win the day in terms of clean energy.  Here’s an article on what Wal-mart is doing to cut itself entirely free of the grid by 2020. 

Did these people just come back from a Sierra Club meeting, at which they “got religion?”  I doubt it; in fact, they don’t even claim that themselves – and they can greenwash with the very best.  No, the issue is pure economics.  They can make or source 7 billion kWhs of renewable energy cheaper than they can buy it from the power utilities. 

Now that’s news, friends.  And it echoes what David Crane, CEO of NRG (Fortune-300, the nation’s largest power producer) said recently about his organization’s tenuous grasp on relevance.