Coles will purchase more than 70% of clean energy from the three solar power plants. Credit: Coles Group.

Australian retailer Coles has signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with global renewable power generation company Metka EGN.

Coles will purchase more than 70% of the energy generated from the three solar power plants that will be built by Metka EGN in the New South Wales region.

Metka EGN will build and operate the three facilities outside the regional centres of Wagga Wagga, Corowa and Junee.

Coles Group CEO Steven Cain said: “We are thrilled that with this agreement, Coles can make a significant contribution to the growth of renewable energy supply in Australia, as well as to the communities we serve.

“We have already made changes throughout our business to use energy more efficiently, which has enabled us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 4% over the past financial year and more than 30% since 2009, despite growing our store network.

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“Over the past two financial years alone, we have invested more than $27m (A$40m) in energy efficiency measures including upgrading all store lighting to LED by the end of 2019 and the installation of solar panels on 30 stores.”

The three plants will have the capacity to generate and supply more than 220GWh of electricity into the national electricity grid while offsetting more than 180,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

The construction works at the site are expected to begin in September 2019 and the solar facilities are expected to commence their operations by July 2020.

During the construction phase, the new solar facilities are expected to generate more than 240 jobs and ten ongoing jobs in the regions.