Around 4000 rooftop solar panels will charge the home furnishing major’s fleet of electric vehicles for delivery and run other store operations in Hyderabad.
Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture and furnishing accessory giant IKEA inaugurated its first Indian store at Hyderabad last week with a massive response from locals. The multinational brand has started off its domestic operations with green energy. The store at Hyderabad has installed about 4000 solar panels at its rooftop that will power its electric vehicle fleet and operations. IKEA has partnered with Hyderabad-based solar solution providers Photon Solar, China-based LONGi Solar and Belgian firm, 3E, with a commissioned solar rooftop capacity of 800 kWp.
Solar operations at IKEA
One of the major operations of the company that will be solar-driven is their delivery. IKEA has adopted solar-powered electric auto-rickshaws to deliver ordered products to their customers. They plan to gradually convert their complete vehicle fleet into electric, with 20 per cent of the vehicles already being solar-driven right now. Major amount of the energy generated by the solar rooftop will be used to charge the batteries of these vehicles. Rest of it will run various other store operations and appliances.
These steps will help IKEA achieve its goals as a part of the RE100 and EV100 initiatives, which promote organisations to operate 100 per cent on renewable energy and electric vehicles, and thus encourage a low carbon economy.
With plans to flag off a new store in Mumbai next year, IKEA aims to open 25 stores across India by 2025.
