Tops will add solar power to 75 stores

Press Release, Tops Friendly Markets

Tops Friendly Market, a leading full-service grocery retailer in New York, northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont, is partnering with Convergent Energy + Power to deliver more renewable energy to upstate New Yorkers in the form of community solar paired with battery storage.

As a result of this partnership, over 75 Tops stores will be powered by the solar farms, which will reduce the stores’ carbon footprint. The solar-plus-storage projects developed by Convergent provide Tops and upstate New Yorkers access to solar energy whether or not the sun is shining and reduce the state’s reliance on power plants during peak demand hours.

“Our ongoing commitment to sustainability is met with enthusiasm and resolve every day, as we work to ensure we leave our communities—and our planet—better for the next generation,” said John Persons, president and chief operating officer, Tops Friendly Markets. “We are excited to be working with Convergent, a values-aligned business with the expertise to deliver solar energy to our stores as efficiently as possible.”

Convergent, founded in 2011, has a decade of expertise developing energy storage-led assets, with approximately half of its portfolio comprised of battery storage paired with solar PV, or solar-plus-storage.

“We are enormously proud of the opportunity to simultaneously reduce emissions and support economic growth right here in our home state,” says Frank Genova, Convergent’s chief operating and financial officer. “As the largest private employer in Western New York, Tops is an ideal, New York-headquartered partner that shares our commitment to corporate, social, and environmental responsibility.”