DELFT, NETHERLANDS-Locally based retailer Ikea is nearly complete with its $723 million plan to invest in renewable energy efforts at its stores, including solar panels on roofs, geothermal heating and even wind farm purchases. The company has been on a whirlwind the past two months installing solar panels on US stores, and just completed the installation on the two Chicago-area locations this week.

The furniture company has more than 330 Ikea stores in 40 countries, including 39 stores and five distribution centers in the United States. A company spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that the Chicago installations are the 24^th and 25^th solar roofs for the US stores, with more completions planned by January. He says 39 of the company’s 44 properties, including four of the five distribution centers, will have solar roofs by 2013.

The company has more solar roofs in the United States than in other countries, the spokesman says. “We’re ahead of the game in the US, partly because the solar industry there is much further developed than in many other countries,” he says. “There is a significant amount completed in Italy, and we’re working on stores in Germany and the United Kingdom.”

Ikea owns and operates the panels, as opposed to a solar lease or power purchase agreement. The spokesman says the panels generate enough electricity to power more than half of a store, and almost the entire energy use by a typical, more than one-million-square-foot distribution center. “The power generation by today’s panels can be significant, it varies depending on the location, weather and time of year,” he says. “We average about 30% to 80% at the stores, and the distribution centers are at up to 100%, they use less electricity.”

An Ikea in Tempe, AZ was the first store to get panels in October 2010. A store in Round Rock, TX is the last store scheduled to turn on new panels sometime in January, the spokesman says. There’s also panels on a distribution center in Southern California, and the centers in Savannah, GA, New Jersey and Maryland will start using panels later this fall, he says.

“This sustainability effort partly reflects our Swedish heritage of respect for the environment,” the spokesman says. “We’re able to purchase the panels in bulk, at a discount, and it makes it a win-win for us and on the local utility grids.”

Instant Insights /

Ikea Almost Complete on $723M Sustainable Project

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