McDonald's Plans To Go Solar At Hundreds Of Locations
Source: https://www.tastingtable.com/1141494/mcdonalds-plans-to-go-solar-at-hundreds-of-locations/
Author: Autumn Swiers
In 2020, McDonald's opened a restaurant in Walt Disney World that was 100% powered by solar energy, reports Fast Company.A combination of solar panels installed on the roof and solar glass windows around the building generated enough energy to keep the entire kitchen and dining room running. At the time, Carol Ross Barney, head of the architecture firm that designed the building, said this project would serve as an experiment for McDonald's to test how far it could make solar power work for its operations. As SolarCompanies.com explains, fast food restaurants require more energy than gas stations and retail stores. Industrial freezers, grills, fryers, ordering kiosks, and air conditioning take up a lot of power — and, for compact fast food restaurants, finding space to put all those solar panels can be a challenge. Some fast food stores are even further limited by their geographic locations. Fast Company repod that by 2030, McDonald's emissions would have to be 36% lower than they were in 2015 to stay on target for the goals it had in 2020. In October 2021, McDonald's announced its goal of becoming totally emissions-neutral by 2050. Recently, the company revealed the latest development in its environmental journey: Hundreds of locations are going solar.