Ikea Group has agreed to buy a 7.65 megawatt wind farm currently under construction in Leitrim, Ireland to provide renewable power for its outlets in Dublin and Belfast.
Mainstream Renewable Power is building the Carrickeeny wind farm, located in northwest Ireland, and will continue to operate and maintain the facility on behalf of Ikea for its 20-year lifespan. The wind farm is expected to be operational in early 2014.
Ikea’s investments in renewable energy not only help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its operations in Ireland, but also, together with the company’s energy efficiency efforts help control electricity costs and pass those benefits onto customers, said Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainability at Ikea UK and Ireland.
The Swedish home furnishings retailer announced in October 2012 plans to become energy independent by 2020, which includes constructing €1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) of wind and solar projects. In August 2011, Ikea’s UK arm purchased a 12.3 MW wind farm in Scotland and announced plans to power all of its stores from renewable sources.
Ikea owns more than 110 wind farms and has installed more than 250,000 solar panels on buildings across the world. The company is particularly focused on installing solar at its US stores.
Ikea committed to investing $150 million in solar PV systems. Ikea reached its goal earlier this year to complete solar installations at 39 out of 44 of its US buildings with a generating capacity of 38 megawatts.
As part of its commitment to energy efficiency, IKEA is phasing-out the sale of incandescent light bulbs, facilitating recycling of customers’ compact fluorescent bulbs, and by 2016 selling and using only LED bulbs.
