Retail giant IKEA has invested 1.5 billion Euros into an energy efficiency and renewable energy programme – which includes installing more than 6,000 solar panels on the roofs of its stores in Glasgow and Edinburgh – to generate 30% of their total power use.
Joanna Yarrow, Head of Sustainability, explained: “By 2020 the renewable energy IKEA produces will be equal to the energy we consume.
“In the UK so far, we match over 30% of our energy use with renewable energy generation.
“As part of this global commitment, we have installed 700,000 solar panels worldwide and here in the UK we’ve installed 39,000 solar panels on 10 of our UK stores – which includes the IKEA Glasgow and Edinburgh stores.
“We’re also looking to install on four further IKEA sites this financial year. In total, IKEA Glasgow and IKEA Edinburgh have over 6,300 solar panels with the capacity to generate over 269MWh per annum.”
Amber Rudd, Minister of Energy and Climate Change, said: “Not only is IKEA powering its buildings through the massive 39,000 panels that are installed across their UK stores and distribution centres, I am also pleased to see that they are selling domestic solar installations through their stores too.
“These are great examples of how Solar PV can power growth in this country.”
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