by Shane Henson — May 10, 2013—Verizon has announced that it will invest $100 million in a solar and fuel-cell energy project that will help power 19 of its facilities in seven states across the country, positioning itself not only as a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services, but as a leader in leveraging green energy to reduce its costs and operate more sustainably.
When completed next year, the project will enable Verizon to annually generate more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of its own green energy—enough to power more than 6,000 single-family homes a year—while eliminating more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the company says.
As part of this project, Verizon says it will work with ClearEdge Power, a manufacturer of scalable, distributed power systems, to install PureCell Model 400 fuel cell systems at Verizon sites in California, New Jersey and New York. The systems will generate more than 60 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and result in a carbon reduction of approximately 6,000 metric tons per year. The installation work, ClearEdge’s largest single-user project to date, will begin soon and continue throughout the year.
Verizon has also signed a multiyear agreement with SunPower Corp. and is negotiating the deployment of high-efficiency rooftop and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems as well as solar parking canopies at Verizon facilities in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arizona and North Carolina. The systems, which will generate approximately 8 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, are expected to be completed this year and to reduce Verizon’s annual carbon footprint by more than 5,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
According to Verizon, an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, this is the company’s latest move toward reaching its goal of cutting its carbon intensity in half by 2020. An early adopter of fuel cell technologies, Verizon currently operates one of the largest fuel cell sites of its kind that helps power an environmentally friendly call-switching center and office building in Garden City, New York. Verizon also uses 26 solar-assisted cell sites in remote areas in the western United States to help power the portion of the nation’s largest and most reliable wireless network serving those areas.
