Tesco is to spend over £100m with UK green technology companies in the next 12 months, boosting the economy and safeguarding or creating thousands of jobs, it claims.

It is already working with companies developing electric car charging points, CO2 refrigeration and combined heat and power plants that generate green electricity.

The news was announced at the opening of the first zero-carbon supermarket in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire. The store was built with sustainable wood, LED lighting and a combined heat and power plant powered with renewable fuel. The store had no net carbon footprint and exported extra electricity generated back to the national grid, Tesco said.

CEO Sir Terry Leahy last year said Tesco would become a zero carbon business by 2050.

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