Home furnishing retailer IKEA Australia has become the first major retailer in Queensland to make the switch to solar powered energy.
The big switch-on, which took place at the Logan store in South-East Queensland, marks the first step towards all five IKEA stores across the East Coast, as well as two stores in development, installing solar panels.
The IKEA Logan store is fitted with 2470 solar panels, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 781T a year. This equates to 262 car emissions annually or the yearly electricity needs of around 118 family homes.
Collectively, the solar installations across seven IKEA buildings will include more than 16,000 panels, with an annual output of 5495 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
The Logan store solar panel installation is part of the IKEA People and Planet Positive strategy for 2020, which focuses on encouraging and contributing to a sustainable planet.
All five stores in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, in addition to two merchandise pick-up locations, will welcome the roof solar panel system throughout 2014 and 2015.
All new IKEA stores in the coming years will be built with solar panel energy systems already installed.
