IKEA buys Texas wind farm as part of clean energy push

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has bought the 165MW in the United States from Apex Clean Energy, marking the company’s largest renewable energy investment to date.

The deal for the 55-turbine project Cameron wind farm project in Texas was announced on Tuesday and is the latest development in IKEA's plan to produce as much renewable energy as the total energy the company consumes globally by 2020.

The wind farm is the company's second wind investment in the US following its purchase of a wind farm in Illinois, earlier this year and it is set to come online in late 2015.

The two wind farms are expected to generate around 1,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, roughly equivalent to the average yearly electricity consumption of 90,000 American households.

Rob Olson, IKEA US acting president and chief financial officer, said: "IKEA believes that the climate challenge requires bold commitment and action. We invest in renewable energy to become more sustainable as a business and also because it makes good business sense."

IKEA has now committed to owning and operating a total of 279 wind turbines in nine countries.

The company has also fitted more than 700,000 solar panels as part of a €1.5bn investment in wind and solar power up to late 2015.

Around 40,000 PV panels are on nine IKEA stores in the UK, with four more stores set to be fitted with solar systems by the end of 2015.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems have been installed at two stores in the U.S. in Centennial, Colorado, and Merriam, Kansas.

IKEA is also expanding a pilot scheme to sell solar panels in the UK to eight more European countries, with PV systems going on sale in the Netherlands in October.