Walmart Migrates Toward LEDs

Walmart is to purchase GE LED ceiling lights for over 100 new stores and remodels in 2014 in the US, Asia and Latin America, and its Asda locations in the United Kingdom.

The new fixtures will use 40 percent less energy than lighting sources historically used in stores, and will help further the retailer’s goal to reduce the kWh per square foot of energy required to power Walmart’s buildings globally 20 percent by 2020, the company says.

This is Walmart’s largest purchase of GE LED lighting to date. Installation will start this month at Asda. In 2014, Walmart and GE project overall new stores and lighting energy savings compared to prior lighting fixtures to total as follows:

• Brazil: 30 store remodels; 41 percent energy savings
• Central America: 10 new stores; 54 – 59 percent energy savings
• China: 24 new stores, 16 store remodels; 42 percent energy savings
• Mexico: 37 new stores; 45 percent energy savings
• UK: 10 new stores; 45 – 51 percent energy savings
• US: 30 new stores; 15 percent energy savings

The move to LED ceiling lighting in the US is expected to produce an energy savings of 340,000 kWh per store – equating to more than $34,000 in savings per year in each store. With 200 new Walmart stores adopting the new GE LED ceiling lighting over the next two years, this amounts to a total energy savings of 620 million kWh over the next 10 years.

The decision to install GE LED lighting results from a pilot program at Walmart’s first all-LED supercenter in South Euclid, Ohio, that was launched in October 2013. This pilot allowed the company to gauge the quality and efficiency of the GE lights and determine the return on investment with LEDs.

Walmart Canada opened its first fully LED-lit store with in late 2013. Replacing fluorescents with 18-watt LEDs should reduce overall energy consumption at the store by 28 percent. The LED lights throughout the supercenter in Stratford, Ontario, will also produce less heat and reduce the need for air conditioning. The combined energy saving measures at the store will reduce energy consumption by about 189,000 kWh annually and save about $18,000 per year.