With the new purchase of a 46-megawatt wind farm in Alberta, Canada, home furnishings giant IKEA will be producing enough renewable energy to meet 37% of its energy consumption globally. The company is planning for 100% renewable energy worldwide by 2020, so it’s well on its way to that goal.
The new wind farm is currently being built, and is expected to be operating by 2014. The electricity produced will be about enough to power 32 IKEA stores, and amounts to 60% of IKEA electricity consumption in North America.
With this new addition to its renewable energy portfolio, IKEA will have a total of 157 wind turbines worldwide. So far, the company has invested in wind turbines in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland, the UK, and Ireland.
In addition to all the wind turbines, IKEA currently has 550,000 solar panels installed on its buildings worldwide. It has just announced that it will be developing sunny South Florida’s largest solar panel array. This new solar installation will consist of 4620 solar panels on its store in Miami. IKEA is planning to install solar panels on 90% of its stores in the United States.
Image CC licensed by John Pastor
Via Think Progress
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