I came across this today out in Palmdale:
Don’t get out much these days so I get excited easily. I saw these windmills and had to stop to take a picture. I looked for something on one of them to tell me if the windmills at the top are decorations or generating electricity. Very cool if they are generating electricity. Much nicer looking than wind farms and seems like a great idea in the desert or beach where there is lots of wind.
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20100430_walmart_sams_club_wind_turbine_in_parking_lot_palmdale_completed.htm
[Best Syndication News] Sam’s Club in Palmdale, California is the first location that Walmart decided to install micro wind turbines on the tops of parking lot light poles to generate alternative energy. The construction is complete and the 17 wind turbines are generating electricity as of today.
The Palmdale location of Sam’s Club was chosen as a test location because of the large amounts of wind in the area. The micro windmill turbines installed at this location are estimated to capable of generating 76,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy every year. That is enough electricity to power six average sized American homes for one year.
Walmart has also invested in solar energy projects at 28 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in California. They also have two fuel cell installations at two Walmart stores in the same state.
They will be installing another pilot location with wind turbines in Worcester, Massachusetts, at their Walmart store location, which will be completed in the early part of May.
Walmart will continue to consider other locations to install wind turbines in parking lots.