Ikea Parent Firm Acquires Stake in 403 MW US Solar Projects

The Ingka Group (owner and operator of 380 IKEA stores in 30 countries), has taken over two solar PV projects in the US worth a combined 403 MW generation capacity.

Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group (owner and operator of 380 IKEA stores in 30 countries), has taken over two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in the US after completing the acquisition of 49 percent ownership stake in each of them, which will help the company generate more renewable energy than ever before.

In September last year, Ingka Investments reached an agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to acquire a 49 percent stake in these two Solar PV projects. With a total of 403-megawatt capacity, this development ranks among the larger solar PV projects in the United States. Ingka Group took over the Utah solar PV project on December 31, last year, while the takeover of the Texas solar PV project concluded on March 31, 2020. 

The completion of this transaction holds special significance for Ingka Group as it will now produce more energy than it consumes. As of February, end, for the first time, Ingka Group’s 12 months’ energy production has exceeded its 12 months of energy consumption. As new investments continue in Finland and the US, the Group is working towards its target for production to exceed consumption. 

IKEA has an ambition to become climate positive, reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits and by FY25. Ingka Group aims to consume 100 percent renewable electricity in each of its 30 countries where its present, focusing on generating renewable electricity onsite and offsite both on wind farms and utility-scale solar farms. The company is now working to ensure its business is fully run on renewable energy with the aim to consume 100 percent renewable electricity in its retail operations by 2025 and to phase out fossil fuel-based heating and cooling by 2030, while increasing energy efficiency, it issued in a statement.

The Misae project in Texas, which produces 567 GWh of energy per annum, will be crucial in these plans. The Group will now have access to the production of 277 GWh of electricity, which is equivalent to the consumption of more than 50 IKEA Stores. Besides this, the Misae project has 823,228 panels of which the firm will own 49 percent, giving an equivalent number of over 400,00 additional panels owned by the Group. 

“Since 2009, Ingka Group has invested close to 2.5 billion euros in renewable energy. For us, investing in renewable energy is a part of our asset management strategy, as it fully supports our sustainability commitments,” says Krister Mattsson, Managing Director Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group. “We plan to continue with our future investment strategy and are focusing on countries where we do not have large scale renewable energy production yet, such as Russia and China.”

Within the Renewable Energy portfolio of Ingka Investments, the ownership and commitments include 534 wind turbines in 14 countries and 2 solar energy farms with 715,000 solar panels under construction in the USA.