Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) strategic partner to IKEA franchisee system, has reached agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to acquire a 49% stake in two Solar PV projects in Utah and Texas. With a total of 403 megawatt capacity this development ranks among the larger Solar Photovoltaic (PV) projects in the United States.

"Investing in renewable energy is an important part of our financial assets management strategy, as it fully supports our sustainability commitments," says Krister Mattsson, Managing Director Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group. "We are delighted to extend our portfolio to now include utility scale solar parks in addition to our two wind farms in the US, bringing us closer to reaching our goal of renewable energy production exceeding our energy consumption."

Currently, Ingka Group owns and operates 900,000 rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on IKEA stores, distribution centers and other buildings worldwide. These latest investments are the first off-site solar plants for Ingka Group and will consist of 636,000 panels in Utah (coming into operation later this month) and 823,000 panels in Texas (expected to come into operation in January). The company has already made significant renewable energy investments in the US, including two wind farms in Illinois and Texas, solar panels at 90% of its locations, geothermal projects at two stores, and biogas-powered fuel cell systems.

"CIP is pleased to enter into this long-term partnership with Ingka Group, a company that shares a similar perspective as CIP on the importance of clean energy resources. Combining CIP's industrial background and asset management expertise with Ingka Group's ambitious corporate sustainability goals, our partnership will provide low cost and renewable power to the Texas and Utah markets," says Christian Skakkebaek, Senior Partner, from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

To meet the challenges of climate change, IKEA is transforming to become climate positive* and circular by 2030, reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits. For Ingka Group, this means generating renewable energy and consuming renewable electricity while increasing energy efficiency and working to halve emissions from customer and co-worker travel. It will also roll out zero emissions home deliveries to all markets by 2025.