Ikea goes live with South Florida’s largest solar energy system

Sunrise, Fla. -- Ikea on Wednesday officially plugged-in the solar energy system installed at its store in City of Sunrise, Fla. It is the largest solar installation in South Florida and, when combined with Ikea projects already completed atop stores in Orlando and Tampa, will make Ikea the state’s largest non-utility solar owner.



Ikea contracted with REC Solar for the development, design and installation of the Sunrise store’s customized solar power system. The 101,774-sq.-ft. PV array consists of a 1,057-kW system, built with 4,368 panels. Ikea Sunrise’s program will produce approximately 1,554,600 kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 1,181 tons of carbon dioxide.



This installation represents the 35th completed solar project for Ikea in the U.S., with four more locations underway, making the eventual U.S. solar presence of Ikea nearly 90% of its U.S. locations with a total generation of 38 MW.



Ikea owns and operates each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings – as opposed to a solar lease or PPA (power purchase agreement) – and globally has allocated $1.8 billion to invest in renewable energy through 2015. Consistent with the company’s goal of being energy independent by 2020, Ikea has installed more than 250,000 solar panels on buildings across the world and owns/operates approximately 110 wind turbines in Europe.