Pepperidge Farm Adds Solar to its Sustainability Recipe

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Quick Facts

1,711,026 kWhEstimated Annual Output

2,720Number of Panels

5 acresPV Surface Area

1.2 MWTotal System Size

Challenge

Campbell Soup Company has set a series of sustainability goals, including to reduce energy use by 35 percent and to source 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

SunPower’s Solution

Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Campbell Soup Company, in partnership with BNB Renewable Energy Holdings and SunPower Corp., installed a 1 MW solar array at its bakery in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The project is the second largest installed at facilities owned by Campbell, and one of the few solar arrays operating at manufacturing sites in the industry.

Customer Benefit

Pepperidge Farm and Campbell wanted a solution that enabled the company to be a good environmental steward, while saving money. SunPower enabled them to do both―with a ground-mount, fixed-tilt system on five acres of sun-drenched land leased from Pepperidge Farm. Pepperidge Farm expects the system to generate approximately 1.7 million kWh of solar energy per year over the life of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

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High-performance solar that reaps big savings

In 2014, Campbell partnered with BNB Renewable Energy Holdings to analyze its U.S. facilities and help determine which ones were suited to onsite renewable energy generation. The team determined that the company’s Pepperidge Farm facility, located in Bloomfield, Connecticut, was one of the sites with the strongest solar potential.

BNB engaged SunPower to design and build a system that would help Pepperidge Farm reach its goals while optimizing incentives from the Connecticut Zero Emissions Renewable Energy Credit Program.

Pepperidge Farm was specifically looking for a solar solution to add to Campbell’s renewable energy portfolio, which already included a 1.2 MW fuel cell, and another solar installation at a plant in Napoleon, Ohio, also built by SunPower and developed by BNB.

“When Campbell Soup awarded BNB the RFP to build this project, we turned to SunPower for a reliable, long-term solar solution,” says Brandon Wall, director at BNB.

Pepperidge Farm, BNB and SunPower worked together to make sure the project would meet everyone’s objectives. Pepperidge Farm provided a five-acre site that was ideal for a solar installation. The company signed a 20-year PPA with BNB that locked in yearly energy credits worth 1.7 million kWh per year for the next two decades. BNB and SunPower built the project to meet the exact specifications of Connecticut’s Zero Emissions Renewable Energy Credit Program (ZREC) program, which limits projects to 1 MW in size.

SunPower and BNB collaborated to structure a creative financing solution for the project, which is owned by PNC Energy Capital LLC, leased back to BNB Bloomfield Solar LLC, and operated and managed by SunPower.

The new project already provides 10-15% of the energy that the plant would typically use, which is ultimately sold to others. More importantly, the project has produced more than just energy.

“Everyone in the community is excited about what we’re doing,” said Harry Pettit, Manager of Electrical, Robotics and Environmental Projects at Pepperidge Farm. “This project has created a real sense of pride about the leadership role of the Bloomfield community when it comes to renewable energy.”

“ People in town and especially at the plant are very proud of the project. It’s doing much more than saving us money. It’s also building enthusiasm for renewable energy throughout our community.”

Harry Pettit Manager of Electrical, Robotics and Environmental Projects, Pepperidge Farm