Coles targeting 100pc renewable by 2025

AT the end of 2025 financial year, Coles will power all of its electricity through renewable sources, following the signing of power purchase agreements.

The agreements for large-scale generation certificates (LGC) were made with Origin Energy, ACCIONA Energía and ENGIE and will enable Coles Group to meet this target, under its Together to Zero goal in its Sustainability Strategy.

“We can now say with confidence that Coles will be 100% renewable from July 1, 2025, which is an incredible achievement,” said Thinus Keevé, chief sustainability, property and export officer at Coles.

Keevé also highlighted that Coles has not only guaranteed it will meet its target but has done so within a year of setting out to do so.

Existing and under construction wind and solar farms across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland will provide the needed resources. With energy from existing farms will be sources from Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia and Mt Gellibrand Wind Farm in Victoria.

In 2019, Coles was the first retailer in the country to announce a power purchase agreement, after signing on with MYTLUNEOS, with the first farm in the agreement the 30MW Corowa Solar Farm opening in June 2021.

Unlike in the MYTLUNEOS deal, Coles will meet the final part of its FY26 sustainability goals through LCGs alone, meaning the group will not be procuring the actual electrons or adding to the pipeline of renewable energy projects across the country.

At the end of June this year, Aldi supermarkets became the first in Australia to power its operations entirely through renewable energy sources across its  offices, stores and warehouses and reducing its emissions by 85%.

While Woolworths in the same month signed its first renewable power purchase agreement, in the major step towards its own target of 100% renewables by 2025.

The newly signed agreements will ensure Coles will have enough renewable energy to cover its forecasted electricity usage from July 1 2025.