Ingka Group, the parent of furniture retailer Ikea, has made new renewable energy investments in Australia to diversify its portfolio.
The company’s investment arm – Ingka Investments – has acquired two operational solar PV parks in central-west NSW and a third solar PV park, which is currently under development.
The three solar parks were acquired from the Australian arm of German solar PV developer, Enerparc and can produce an estimated 340 GWh per year – equal to the electricity consumed by roughly 65,000 Australian households.
Peter van der Poel, MD of Ingka Investments, said the partnership with Enerparc marks an “important initiative” to enable renewable electricity consumption in Australia.
“Ingka Investments’ renewable energy portfolio is growing and expanding so rapidly in Australia with full ownership of three solar PV parks in NSW,
“With our own solar parks (and wind farms), we want to make renewable energy available throughout the Ikea value chain and beyond.”
In February, the company purchased a 15 per cent stake in TagEnergy’s $2 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm near Geelong, Victoria.
Mirja Viinanen, CEO and chief sustainability officer of Ikea Australia, said the retailer has “ambitious targets” in reducing its climate footprint across the business globally.
Christoph Koeppen, CEO and chairman of the board at Enerparc AG, said the partnership is in line with the company’s strategy to develop a total of 10 GW of solar PV plants globally for its own portfolio and another 10 GW of third-party solar portfolios until 2030.
