Solar panels are sold at Ikea, starting in California

Starting this fall, Swedish furniture giant Ikea, with its California locations, will sell the means to power your Starkvind (that’s an air purifier) ​​and Stjärnstatus (that’s a fridge) by adding solar panels to the company’s offering. Fortunately, the assembly is taken care of by the professionals.

To bring photovoltaics – the technical name for solar panels – to the people, Ikea is working with SunPower, one of the country’s largest solar energy providers, who will install the roof systems and a DC battery storage system. As with all solar systems, the cost and energy produced will vary depending on a number of factors such as: B. the size of the roof and the solar radiation during the day. Incentives like tax credits can also help sweeten the deal, depending on where you live. Ikea used to sell solar panels in the UK, starting at around $9,000 per household including the battery, but ended those sales in 2019 after a change in government subsidies made installation too prohibitive. So the process is a bit more complicated than tossing a couple of flat-pack panels in your shopping cart alongside some new bath towels, but Ikea’s entry into solar energy could make the power source more accessible.

In recent years, Ikea has ramped up its sustainability efforts to offset the massive carbon footprint of its fast furniture model (which won’t make much of an impact as long as the company is still milling old-growth forests). . The stated goal of Ikea’s solar efforts is to reduce to zero the emissions generated by the operation of its connected products, which the company estimates account for about 20 percent of total emissions. Let’s see if Ikea can make solar panels as ubiquitous and affordable for US homes as its Billy bookshelf — of which one is made every three seconds.