Today Walmart announced it is going to double its use of solar panels on its own facilities, possibly setting a trend more commercial players in California could follow, said Governor Schwarzenegger.

Within 18 months, Walmart wants to expand its sustainable energy efforts by adding solar panels on 10 to 20 Walmart facilities in California. That will be in addition to the 18 solar arrays that are currently installed with existing facilities. The supplier of the new solar panels for Walmart is BP Solar.

After the new solar panels are in place, the total capacity of renewable energy coming from the Walmart facilities will be 32 million kilowatt hours per year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 22,500 metric tons, said the company.

Walmart said that its facilities equipped with solar panels will get 20 percent to 30 percent of their electric energy from solar power when the whole installation has been rolled out.

"This project is all about taking bold action so we can see solar panels on commercial rooftops all across California while putting people to work," said Governor Schwarzenegger in a prepared statement. "Today's action helps prove that even in an economic downturn, it is possible to get serious about clean, renewable energy." (The picture on the right from a press conference webcast this morning.)

Walmart always has 24-month perspective in its sustainability efforts (see Walmart Seeks Green Ideas). Projects or ideas with a longer timeline will not be considered, at least not on its Cleantech Accelerator Portal (which has been previously criticized by Green Light).

At the same time, the company's long-term goals are to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, create zero waste and sell sustainable products. It's uncertain when this will happen, which makes it a nice but a somewhat painless goal.

The current solar panel installation will create about 130 jobs, according to Walmart. After the panels have been installed, Walmart is going to consider expanding the technology to additional sites.

"Thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership, California is an excellent environment for us to grow our investment in renewable energy and help create more green jobs," said Kimberly Sentovich, Walmart's California regional general manager, in a statement.

Correction: The headline of this story has been changed to more accurately reflect Walmart's involvement in the solar rooftop project.