IKEA To Start Selling Renewable Electricity To Swedish Households

IKEA, which started selling solar panels and other equipment at its stores sometime back, is now moving into direct electricity selling too.

Under the plan that the global retailer of furniture and other items has announced, IKEA’s solar panel producer, Svea Solar will be buying renewable electricity on the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool and resell it without surcharge. Households will need to pay a fixed monthly fee along with a variable rate. This gives regular households that cannot build their own solar generation, for instance, to shift to green power.

  Somewhat similar to the move in India recently to allow ‘green power’ to be sold by discoms.

Netherlands-based INGKA Holding B.V., the owner of the IKEA Group, has announced the households could buy affordable renewable electricity from solar and wind parks and track their usage through an app.

Additionally, IKEA, announced that the buyers who opt for their own solar generation too could track the electricity production in the above-said app, and they too can sell back the surplus electricity. Also, IKEA sells solar panels for households in 11 markets.

The group aims to make electricity from sustainable sources more accessible and affordable for all.

By 2030, IKEA targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions below its emissions through all of its value chains. And, by selling renewable electricity to households, it has moved one step ahead towards its goals. The group also has over 750,000 solar panes installed across its own stores.

Recently in April, IKEA had announced that its investment arm, Ingka Investments, will fund 160 MW of solar projects, worth $272 million, in southwest Russia, so as to accelerate its investment in renewable energy. It had signed an agreement with Solar Systems, LLC, to acquire a 49% stake in its eight solar parks, and hopes to make a grand debut in Russia’s renewable energy market.

Before that, IKEA announced a program for its suppliers in India, Poland, and China, where it will help them transit to 100% renewable electricity. Almost 1,600 direct suppliers will be covered under this move, IKEA said in a statement. In India, IKEA currently has 48 suppliers with about 45,000 direct employees and about 400,000 people in the extended supply chain. It sources approximately 330 million Euros worth of goods from India each year.

At the end of September 2013, the company announced to sell solar panel packages, so-called “residential kits”, for households through its Home solar division. The decision followed a successful pilot project at the Lakeside IKEA store, whereby one PV system was sold almost every day.