Sainsbury’s has signed a deal to power some of its stores entirely using wind power.

The £8m deal is with a small wind farm at the A7 Lochhead development, near Stonehouse in South Lanarkshire, which will provide the retailer with enough wind-generated energy to power four stores.

Sainsbury's deal is the first time a UK company of its size has completed a deal directly with a generator rather than an energy company.

The Power Purchase Agreement means the retailer will purchase energy direct from A7 Lochhead, which will be completed by summer 2009, for the next 10 years.

Neil Sachdev, commercial director at Sainsbury’s, said: "Lochhead was able to find the funding to build this wind farm because we agreed to buy the entire output in advance. [This means] we are responsible for a new source of renewable energy to help cut the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels.

“Customers expect us to do everything we can to minimise our impact on the environment, and this new deal is the next stage in our plan to become even more environmentally responsible as a business,” he said.

Wind-generated power from the plant will displace about 65,000 tonnes of carbon from fossil power stations and provide at least one per cent of Sainsbury's energy demand each year, the equivalent of powering four stores.

Alex Hensher, founder of A7 Energy, said: “Power Purchase Agreements are an innovative way that independent generators can get renewable energy projects off the ground, whether they are biomass, waste-to-energy or, in this case, wind turbines.”

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