IKEA India Shopping Centres on Renewable Energy By 2025

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Furniture retailer IKEA plans to power its stores, warehouses and shopping centres entirely on renewable energy by 2025, even as Ingka Investments—the investment arm of parent Ingka Group—is considering India for investments in renewable energy plants, the company said on 20th April. IKEA is the world’s largest organized furniture retailer. It currently has two stores in India. “India has tremendous renewable energy potential and IKEA aims to have all its stores, warehouses and shopping centres run entirely by renewable energy by 2025. Today, 85% of our energy requirement in India is supplied from external sources. We would like to secure current and future energy requirements from renewable energy sources. Ingka investments is considering India favorably for investments in renewable energy plants," Peter Betzel, CEO and chief suitability officer, Ikea India said. India, however, needs a more stable policy environment that will encourage more companies to shift to renewable energy and attract investments in the sector, Betzel said. Recently, Ingka Group—that owns the bulk of IKEA stores worldwide—acquired a 49% stake in 8 solar PV parks in Russia. The energy capacity of the parks equals 160 megawatts, which will provide enough electricity to power all 17 IKEA Stores in Russia plus part of the MEGA shopping centres based around the country, the company said. Betzel's comments come on the day Ingka Group announced additional investments of 4 billion euro—to support the furniture retailer’s transition towards a renewable energy future over the next decade. The investment will aid in reducing the company’s climate footprint, it said. In the past decade Ingka Group has invested 2.5 billion euro into renewable energy in onsite and offsite wind and solar power helping the company to generate more renewable energy globally than it consumes, it added. Its investments now total 6.5-billion-euro as it moves towards 100% renewable energy across the value chain. The investments will focus on adding wind and solar projects in new countries. The company will also consider new types of investments in areas such as energy storage, hydrogen fuel development and charging infrastructure, it said. The move comes as more companies are stepping up commitments to fight global climate change. “We are in the most important decade in the history of humankind - climate change is no longer a distant threat, and we must all do our part to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The cost of inaction is just too high and brings substantial risks to our business and humanity. We know that with the right investments we can be part of the solution and reduce the impact on the home we share – our planet – while future proofing our business," said Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group. IKEA is committed to the Paris Agreement, the company said. Ingka Group owns and manages 547 wind turbines, 10 solar parks in 15 countries and 935,000 solar panels on the roofs of IKEA stores and warehouses, bringing its total installed renewable energy power to more than 1.7 Gigawatt.