SAN FRANCISCO, U.S. — Renewable Properties, a leading developer and financier of 1-20 MW utility solar energy projects, today announced they have signed a community solar subscription agreement with Caribou Coffee Inc. (Caribou), the second largest company-operated premium coffeehouse in the United States with over 300 company-owned locations nationwide, a move that will not only reduce the coffee giant’s energy costs today but hedge against rising utility costs in the future.
The partnership, put together by Minnesota-based community solar subscription manager, Terasota Partners, subscribes Caribou to multiple 1-megawatt community solar gardens throughout Minnesota. Over the term of the agreement, Caribou will receive utility bill credits on their retail location electric bills throughout the state based on the number of kWhs produced by their share of the community solar garden portfolio.
“The collaboration with Renewable Properties and Terasota is really a win-win-win,” says John Walbrun, SVP Supply Chain & Properties at Caribou Coffee. “There’s now more clean solar energy being produced in the state and with the reduction in our energy costs, Caribou can continue to focus on its mission to provide high quality, handcrafted beverages and food that will fuel our customers’ adventures big and small.”
“These are our first two community solar gardens in Minnesota, and this is just the beginning,” says Aaron Halimi, Founder and President of Renewable Properties. “Big brands like Caribou have huge energy costs, and more often than not, a footprint that’s spread out. Thanks to the public services commissions and forward-thinking utilities like Xcel Energy, businesses like Caribou can benefit from community solar gardens and leave the engineering, permitting, construction, maintenance and operation of large-scale solar projects to us.”
“Community solar allows businesses, residents, and public entities to subscribe to an off-site solar installation without hosting the project on their property,” says Jake Wanek, VP of Subscriber Acquisition for Terasota Partners. “Working with the teams at Caribou and Renewable Properties has been easy and we hope to work with both parties on more projects very soon.”
The average annual production from the two solar arrays is 3,612,949 kWhs, which is enough to power 347 single-family homes a year.* By using solar energy, these community solar gardens are offsetting the equivalent in CO² emissions from 542 passenger vehicles driven for one year.**
*Residential energy consumption based on data from the US EIA
**Greenhouse gas emission calculations sourced from EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator
