Chipotle Mexican Grill has made a committment to install solar panels on 75 of its restaurants in 2010 in an effort to continuously decrease the environmental impact caused by operations.
Already, locations throughout Texas have undergone the transformation. Electricity generated by the solar panels to roll into the restaurant's regular power supply with some of powering daily restaurant operations, said Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold in an article in East Plano's Star Local News.
From the story:
Arnold said with the installation of solar panels, the company hopes to reduce its restaurants' draw on traditional power at peak business times - from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. - when demand on the energy grid is greatest. The restaurants chosen to have the solar panels installed are selected based on criteria including electricity consumption by the restaurant, solar rebates that are available from local utilities and access to direct sunlight. "When complete, the installations are expected to produce 500 kilowatts of electricity collectively, and make Chipotle the largest direct producer of solar energy in the restaurant industry," Arnold said. "The installations are also expected to help avoid the release of 41 million pounds of CO2 emissions."
