Ikea Australia has begun to install solar panels across its seven stores and warehouses in Australia’s east coast, and is expecting a total output of 5,495 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
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The Swedish furnishing retail giant plans to collectively have the largest solar panels fitted in commercial buildings in Australia, with a total of about 16,000 solar panels spread across Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, the company said on Thursday.
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We are committed to investing in new ways to improve our environmental responsibility and the solar energy system investment across our stores in Australia will further strengthen these sustainable efforts
Richard Wilson, Ikea Australia’s sustainability manager
In April, Ikea already began mounting the panels in Queensland’s Logan store and by the end of this year, the firm eyes to fully complete the installations in Springvale, Melbourne.
All these solar panels will take up a total area of 32,870 square metres, which is equivalent to almost five soccer fields, Ikea said.
The flat-pack furniture maker has already installed some 550,000 solar panels on Ikea buildings worldwide and the solar programme in Australia is part of the company’s ambitious plans to fully rely on renewable energy by 2020, explained Richard Wilson, Ikea Australia’s sustainability manager.
This is part of the company’s global sustainability strategy called ‘People & Planet Positive’, which Ikea has been agressively implementing such as investing heavily on renewable energy sources. It recently purchased wind farms in the United States.
Meanwhile, rooftop solar has reportedly become popular in Australia in recent years, particularly in residential buildings, having reached three gigawatts of solar power generated through photovoltaic installations.
Wilson noted: “We are committed to investing in new ways to improve our environmental responsibility and the solar energy system investment across our stores in Australia will further strengthen these sustainable efforts.”
The panels will be installed by solar energy providers Canadian Solar and Kingspan.
