There’s no doubt that 2020 was a whirlwind of a year. It seems that COVID-19 has presented plenty of challenges for most businesses, with lasting effects that are making it difficult or impossible to balance the books. Combine this with climate change-related impacts, such as California wildfires and last year's record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s easy to understand why some companies are taking steps to mitigate financial obstacles while meeting sustainability goals at the same time.

SunPower has teamed up with some pretty reputable brands this year to install sizable solar projects across the country. Here are a few of our favorites from 2020.

McDonald's

The happiest place on Earth became a little brighter and a lot more sustainable this year with a SunPower solar installation. The McDonald’s located at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida is making news for its energy-efficient design. Adorned with 1,066 rooftop solar panels, the solar system is capable of producing up to 600,000 kilowatts of electricity per year. And while we’d say the solar installation is the most impressive feature of this restaurant, there are actually some other cool nods to sustainability, including a living green wall that actively absorbs rainwater and Louver windows that automatically open and close to push hot air out and bring cool air in during the summer months.

Washington Metro (WMATA)

Recently labeled as the largest community solar project in the region, the Washington Metro is covering parking lots and garages at four of its locations with SunPower solar panels. The equivalent of 13 football fields worth of space, these solar projects have the capacity to generate 12.8 megawatts of solar power to help provide area homeowners with utility savings. The sites are estimated to produce enough power for at least 1,500 single-family homes, giving respective locals a share of clean and reliable electricity for many years to come.

Chevron

Chevron is increasing the use of renewables and offsets in support of its business. Recently, a 29-megawatt SunPower solar system was constructed at Chevron’s Lost Hills location in California. The project has been predicted to produce more than 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of solar energy within the next two decades. With that, the expectation is for the solar system to generate electricity equivalent to 80% of the location’s typical energy use. 

There are plans for the Lost Hills location to feature a battery storage component. These battery modules will store energy generated from the solar arrays during peak solar output to dispatch later when solar output is lower, helping Chevron to receive additional savings on electricity.

Gilead 

Gilead has also set their sights on environmental stewardship. Another ambitious goal setter, Gilead hopes to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by the year 2025. To help spur this effort along, Gilead has invested in cleaner sources of electricity. Currently, five of Gilead’s locations operate solely on renewable energy. One of these locations in Foster City, California, boasts a SunPower system that is expected to generate over 9 million kWh of clean solar annually.

These featured projects are just a snapshot of the exciting work SunPower is doing with brands from coast to coast. In fact, data collected from Wood Mackenzie’s U.S. commercial solar leaderboard report positions SunPower as the #1 Commercial Solar Provider for installations and module technology for three consecutive years in a row. Simply said, businesses trust SunPower with its high-quality solar solutions and comprehensive warranty again and again. In fact, SunPower often works with the same companies more than once for additional installations. To learn more about commercial solar solutions, fill out our form.

This post originally appeared on the SunPower Resources Blog