Understanding Future Uses of Roofspace and Defining An Early Path to Profitable Roof Estate Investing
April 24th, 2013
Via Earth Techling, an article about Ikea’s new (and ridiculously large) rooftop installation:
A new rooftop solar power installation for Ikea? These have become so common, it would have to be pretty special to earn an EarthTechling story. And it is.
It’s Ikea’s biggest installation yet: a 768,972-square-foot PV array consisting of 18,576 PV panels that have a total generating capacity of more than 2.6 megawatts. To give you a sense of the size of this system – which went in on the roof of a Perryville, Md., distribution center – consider this: The average home solar setup is around 5 kilowatts. That means Ikea just installed the equivalent of about 535 home solar power systems.
The solar power system on the Perryville, Md., distribution center is expected to produce about 3.4 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually. (image via Ikea)
“As one of the largest rooftop arrays in the country, this installation will ensure that the IKEA Perryville distribution center consumes very little power from the electric grid,” Ed Morris, Perryville Distribution Center manager, said in a statement.
According to an industry report last September, Walmart was the clear leader in installed solar capacity among U.S. companies, with 65 megawatts, with Costco (38.9 MW) and Kohl’s (36.5 MW) battling for second, and Ikea staking out fourth place (21.5 MW). Of course, Walmart has a big advantage: It has more than 4,000 retail outlets in the United States. Measured by percentage of stores with solar power systems, Ikea was the big winner, with solar at 79 percent of its stores, far outdistancing second-place REI at 20 percent, followed by Costco (14 percent) and Kohl’s (11 percent).
With Perryville completed and three more system installations currently under way, Ikea said it is now closing in on having solar at 90 percent of its locations, for a total of 38 MW.
Beyond high solar penetration rate, another thing that distinguishes Ikea is how it goes about doing solar. These days, most giant rooftop systems are owned by solar developers, who shoulder the upfront installation costs and sell the power (at a low, stable price) back to the building owner/tenant through a power purchase or lease agreement.
Ikea likes to own.
The company said that around the world it “has allocated $1.8 billion to invest in renewable energy through 2015. This investment reinforces the long-term commitment of IKEA to sustainability and confidence in photovoltaic (PV) technology.”
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Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”