Ingka Investments Accelerates Renewable Energy Push With Australian Solar Acquisition
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the world's largest IKEA retailer, has acquired a 195MW Australian solar PV portfolio from the Australian arm of German solar PV developer, ENERPARC. The total investment in the solar PV portfolio will amount to approximately A$250 million.
Ingka Investments is purchasing two operational solar PV parks in Peak Hill and Trundle, near Parkes, in central-west New South Wales, and a third solar PV park currently under development which is expected to start producing electricity at the end of 2025.
The expected installed capacity of the solar PV parks equals 195 megawatts. The total production of the three solar parks will be approximately 340 GWh per year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of roughly 65,000 Australian households.
"We are delighted to be announcing this important initiative to enable renewable electricity consumption in Australia, and to partner up once again with Enerpac in this next step in accelerating our energy production in the Asia and Pacific region. With our own solar parks (and wind farms), we want to make renewable energy available throughout the IKEA value chain and beyond,” said Peter van der Poel, Managing Director, Ingka Investments.
Mirja Viinanen, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA Australia added: "It is incredibly exciting that Ingka Investments’ renewable energy portfolio is growing and expanding so rapidly in Australia with full ownership of three solar PV parks in NSW. In addition to the recently acquired stake in a wind farm in Victoria, this is the next vital step towards reaching 100% renewable energy across all operations. We have ambitious targets when it comes to reducing our climate footprint across Ingka Group globally, and meaningful investment like this is leading the way."
The investment in Australia secures long-term access to renewable energy that can be steered contractually towards the consumption not only of the local Ingka Group operations but also, in the future, to value chain partners and customers, contributing to further reduction of the Ingka Climate Footprint.
This new investment provides for better diversification of the renewable energy portfolio improving its production profile and the matching of the production with consumption.
As part of a €6.5 billion initiative to support 100% renewable energy consumption across the value chain and beyond, Ingka Investments has invested and committed more than €3.5 billion into renewable energy projects in wind and solar power.
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