IKEA Group lately announced it will expand its residential solar sales from Britain into the Netherlands and Switzerland before the end of this year. The offer will expand to a further 6 countries within the coming 18 months.
“We know that our customers want to save energy and live more sustainably at home,” said Peter Agnefjäll, IKEA Group President and CEO. “But we believe they shouldn’t spend more money or time to do so. That is why we are determined to make sustainability both affordable and attractive to as many people as possible.” Agnefjäll continued, “I am delighted that we can now commit to bringing affordable home solar to a further eight countries, starting with the Netherlands and Switzerland.”
IKEA is Expanding its Own Solar Use, Too
As well as bringing convenient renewable energy access to its customers, IKEA is also expanding progress on its own use of renewable energy. With a €1.5 billion commitment, IKEA plans to match 100% of its energy use with renewable energy generation by 2020. So far it has installed 700,000 solar panels on its own stores and buildings, and has also committed to own and operate 224 wind turbines.
IKEA Group has also committed that all plastic material used in IKEA home furnishing products will be 100% renewable and/or recycled by 2020. Together these announcements highlight significant progress in IKEA Group’s People & Planet Positive sustainability strategy.
The IKEA solar systems are on sale now in all 18 UK stores at prices that have enabled more people to invest in solar energy for their homes. The first store in the Netherlands started selling on October 28th. The first Swiss store is planned to launch solar sales in mid December. The offer will include full installation and warranties through a partnership with Hanergy.
Covered by James Ayre of our sister site CleanTechnica.com, his original article is reposted here, highlighting the expansion of IKEA solar sales into the Netherlands:
IKEA To Sell Solar Panels In Stores In The Netherlands
October 30th, 2014 by James Ayre
The multinational furniture giant IKEA will soon begin selling residential solar panels in its stores in the Netherlands, as per recent reports.
The move is part of a new partnership between the thin-film module manufacturer Hanergy and IKEA. The solar panels will at first only be offered in the Haarlem region — but availability will then be expanded to encompass to the Utrecht region as well, within a month. After that, the partnership will be rolled out in a number of other countries — in Switzerland in December, followed by roll-out in six other countries within the near-future.
Screenshot of IKEA solar panels page from UK IKEA site.
The starting price for the panels, for Dutch customers, will be €3200 — with an average installation price for a 2.5kW system being about €4400. Reportedly, though, “IKEA Family” members will receive a 15% discount — so that lessens the cost somewhat.
The expansion into the Netherlands is following on the heels of a successful pilot project in the UK — which has, impressively, seen more than 1,500 solar systems sold since it began last October in Southampton, UK.
According to the figures out here by IKEA and Hanergy, installing one of the solar systems can save the typical customer in the Netherlands about €463 a year on energy bills. Which amounts to a 10.5% return on investment within only the first year.
Owing to the relatively large percentage of citizens there who have an awareness of the cost-savings potential of home solar systems, the new partnership is likely to be something of a success in the Netherlands. No doubt, this is one of the reasons for IKEA starting the roll-out in that market, as well as the fact that the Netherlands has relatively high electricity prices.
Lisen Wirén, the sustainability manager for IKEA Netherlands, stated that the new systems are targeted at consumers “who want to live sustainably and save energy at the same time, without too high an investment.”
As far as that goes, the Hanergy Solar UK CEO, Toby Ferenczi, commented: “Residential solar panels are one of the best ways to reduce electricity bills and can provide significant annual savings.”
No question about that. If I owned my own house, I would have bought solar myself years ago. With such home solar systems becoming mainstream enough for IKEA to carry them, things are looking rather rosy for the industry.
IKEA has a wonderful history of using and now offering solar power. It is probably the leader in the world of big corporations for how much renewable energy it uses relative to its total electricity usage. It has also been a leader in the Big Box sale of electric bikes and LEDs, as well as installation of EV charging stations and wind power plants. It intends to produce enough renewable energy to meet 100% of its energy needs by 2020.
Image Credit: IKEA
