IKEA to install solar panels at ten UK stores
IKEA has said it plans to install 39,000 solar panels in UK stores following its purchase of a wind farm in Scotland.
The Swedish flat pack furnishings company is investing almost £4 million in fitting the photovoltaic panels to the rooftops of ten of its stores. IKEA said the panels will provide an average of 5% of each store’s energy requirements.
The 12.3 MW wind farm in Aberdeenshire has seven turbines which produce 24,700,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The initiative forms part of the company’s ‘IKEA Goes Renewable’ project in which IKEA has stated its long-tem goal of securing all its energy from renewable sources.
Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer, IKEA Group said: “As part of our global ‘IKEA Goes Renewable’ program, we are committed to heavily investing in making IKEA buildings more energy efficient and use more renewable energy. For example, our most recently built [British Isles]-based stores in Coventry, Southampton and Dublin have been designed to incorporate measures that will have a major impact on these areas, including geothermal heating and cooling systems, biomass boilers and improved insulation.”
IKEA said that all installation work should be completed by March 2012.
