TESCO said that it wanted reduce heavily its energy usage in the UK after confirming plans to invest £100 million in researching green alternatives.

In a move reminiscent of Wal-Mart, Tesco’s far larger American rival, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain responded to critics of its huge expansion by announcing plans to invest in environmental projects.

Tesco said that the investment in green technology would be part of a wider community inititative, about which it would give further details later this year.

Andrew Higginson, Tesco’s finance director, said that the move was partly motivated by a 60 per cent rise in the cost of energy last year. He said: “There is no sign of that kind of pressure easing in the medium term.”

In the past year Tesco has decreased its energy usage by 10 per cent as part of cost-saving initiatives.

Mr Higginson said that by 2010 the group wanted to halve the number of kilowatt-hours per sq ft used, against the level used in 2000.

Tesco is testing two energyefficient stores — the second of which is 34 per cent more efficient than a typical supermarket — and is also planning to instal more wind turbines on stores and distribution depots as well as using solar power.

In addition to these two stores, the group is planning to build a store in Aylsham in Norfolk which, it said, would be made entirely out of recyclable materials such as wood and recycled plastics, and would be the “greenest store in the world”.

Tesco also wants to double the amount of recycling facilities at its stores, which it said would account for 10 per cent of the packaging recycling targets for the whole of the UK.

Friends of the Earth, the pressure group, described the supermarket as “the new green chameleon.”

Sandra Bell, the group’s supermarket campaigner, said: “Tesco is still a long way from being a truly green company. Given its rapid growth, its commitment to sourcing cheap food, and the threat it poses to independent retailers, it is hard to see how it is ever going to get there.”

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