The Swedish furniture retailer Ikea will begin selling residential solar panels in its 17 UK stores within the next 10 months. The basic package’s $9,500 price tag will include 18 panels, installation, design consultation, energy monitoring, and maintenance.
With energy savings and current green energy subsidies in the UK, consumers should typically earn as much as $1,244 per year and break even within about seven years, Ikea said.
Great Britain’s heavily subsidized green energy market is smaller than other European countries’, but it has shown steady growth, rising 25 percent in the past year, the Guardian reports. The decision by the world’s largest furniture retailer comes after a successful test run at a store outside of London, where solar panel sales averaged one unit per day. Ikea has not announced plans to sell units in the U.S., where some utility companies have sought an end to public subsidies of residential solar installations.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
