Ikea To Install 39,000 Solar Panels On Company Stores, Buys Scotland Wind Farm
Ikea Group isn’t just for home-furnishings the company is also invested in wind and solar power after announcing on Friday that they have purchased a new wind farm in Scotland and plan to install 39,000 solar panels on their U.K. stores in order to gather more renewable energy from alternative sources.
The 12.3-megawatt wind farm in Huntly was purchased from Good Energies Capital Inc.
Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard told Bloomberg:
“That’s enough to cover 30 percent of Ikea’s U.K. electricity use. The solar panels, totaling 2.1 megawatts, will be fitted on 10 stores, providing an average of 5 percent of each shop’s power.”
Wind farms are not a new approach for Ikea which also owns farms in Denmark, France and Germany. According to reports the company loses approximately $1.7 billion per year due to fluctuating energy prices.
Howard explained:
“The principle strategy is to match the direct energy consumption of the business with electricity production from renewable assets,” while adding, “We can certainly see a point in time where renewables are likely to be the most cost-effective form of energy generation.”
The move to grab cheap renewable energy on a corporation level isn’t something new, Google last year acquired the rights to buy energy at wholesale prices and while they are not attempting to sell that power to customers, the move was seen as a smart business decision for powering the company’s data centers which require constant power in various parts of the world.
