Lockheed Martin (www.lockheedmartin.com) has entered into a 17-year agreement to buy solar-generated electricity produced by Duke Energy Renewables in North Carolina. The deal will provide clean energy for all Lockheed Martin’s US sites.

The Duke Energy Renewables solar park in Conetoe, North Carolina, is currently the largest solar facility east of the Mississippi River (producing 80MW of energy).

As part of its sustainability commitments, Lockheed Martin is focused on reducing its overall energy consumption and ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions through energy-efficiency measures as well as renewable-energy projects.

Carol Cala, Lockheed Martin vice-president (energy, environment, safety and health), said: “Signing this agreement for the acquisition of large-scale renewable power is a significant milestone towards our commitment to environmental stewardship and is one more step in the expansion of our ‘Go Green’ programme looking for operational efficiencies and best business value.

"We have a goal to reduce our ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions by 35% by 2020, based on our 2010 emissions. With this investment in renewables, we are one step closer to achieving that goal.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency listed Lockheed Martin as one of the top-rated corporations on its 2015 ranking of the largest ‘green power’ users. The company uses nearly 260,000MWh of ‘green power’ annually, including renewable-energy credits, which is enough to meet 16% of its electricity use.