Ikea assembles UK renewable energy portfolio

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has announced that it has purchased a Scottish wind farm and will spend £4m installing solar panels on the roofs of 10 of its UK stores in a bid to cushion the company against rising energy prices.

The company announced late last week that it had purchased the 12.3MW wind farm in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, for an undisclosed sum. Its seven turbines are expected to produce enough electricity to supply five IKEA stores or around 30 per cent of IKEA's total consumption in the UK.

A spokesman for the company confirmed IKEA would look to expand its wind energy portfolio in the UK further, but declined to give any further details.

The group now owns 67 turbines and almost 130MW of wind energy capacity globally, after it sealed similar deals in France and Germany last year. IKEA also has plans to build a nine-turbine facility in Sweden capable of powering 17 of its stores in the country.

Meanwhile, 39,000 solar panels will be fitted on stores in Cardiff, Edmonton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Southampton, Warrington, Wednesbury, and Wembley by March 2012, adding to arrays that are already operational at the Milton Keynes, Edmonton, Southampton and Warrington stores.

Around 31,000 square metres of roof space will be covered by the panels, which will provide an average of five per cent of each store's electricity.

Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer at the IKEA Group, said the aim was to fit out all IKEA UK buildings with solar panels "in the long term", although a company spokesman said there are "no current plans" to install panels on its eight remaining stores.

The wind farm and solar arrays combined should offset more than 10,500 tonnes of CO2 per year, the company said.

IKEA has been looking to cut the amount it spends on energy and has set a target of ensuring all its stores are entirely powered by renewable energy, although it has yet to set a date by which to achieve this milestone. Currently, it sources about half of its energy from renewable sources.

The company has also introduced energy efficiency measures that have reduced energy consumption by 19 per cent and allowed it to open six new stores since 2005 with only a 10 per cent increase in overall energy use.

"We believe that our wind farm and solar panel initiatives mark a major milestone in our ambition to source 100 per cent renewable energy," said Howard. "As well as reducing our impact on the environment, these initiatives come with a strong financial incentive as consuming less energy means we spend less money, which helps us lower the prices on our products."