Ingka Group, which owns the majority of IKEA shops globally, has spent 340 million euros ($373 million) on nine solar photovoltaic (PV) park projects in Germany and Spain as part of its effort to generate more renewable energy than it consumes.
The world’s largest furniture store announced on Wednesday that it will purchase the projects from German developer Enerparc, which would have a total capacity of 440 megawatts.
“The planned production would be adequate to cover all IKEA stores and warehouses in the two countries,” the company stated in a statement.
IKEA is a franchise system, with Ingka Group serving as the primary franchisee for brand owner Inter IKEA. By 2030, IKEA wants to be climate positive, meaning it wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than its entire value chain emits.
Despite record sales, IKEA, the world’s largest furniture company, claimed on Tuesday that it was on course to become climate positive by 2030, with yearly carbon emissions down 6% from pre-pandemic levels.
Inter IKEA, the brand’s owner, said emissions in the value chain – from raw material production to customer use and disposal – totaled 26.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the 12 months through August, down from 27.9 million in fiscal 2019, when emissions decreased for the first time.
“The projects are still in the planning stages, but they are scheduled to be ready for building by the end of 2022, with development continuing until 2023. The construction will take about six months to complete “According to the Ingka Group.
The company already owns 547 wind turbines in 14 countries, as well as 10 solar parks and 935,000 solar panels on the rooftops of IKEA shops and warehouses, totaling more than 4 Terawatt hours of electricity.