Distributed Solar Development (DSD) has completed a custom 1.358-MW solar carport it designed and built for IKEA Baltimore. The Baltimore IKEA location has seen an 84% decrease in the amount of energy needed to be purchased between September and December 2020, equating to a 57% cost savings for the store.
Credit: Distributed Solar Development (DSD) at IKEA Baltimore
This is the first of eight projects DSD will develop for IKEA stores in Maryland and California, which are on track to be completed in 2021. The projects will help propel the IKEA toward its goal of being powered by 100% renewable energy while increasing energy efficiency by 2025.
“IKEA is a clear environmental leader that sets the bar high for other global organizations,” says Erik Schiemann, CEO at DSD. “We’ve helped IKEA maximize its solar energy generation and expand its solar storage capacity, and we’re currently reviewing additional facilities for future solar project locations. With each installation, IKEA moves closer to its ambitious sustainability goals and we’re glad to be a part of that mission.”
The additional seven locations include IKEA College Park in Maryland, as well as IKEA Burbank, Costa Mesa, East Palo Alto, Emeryville, San Diego and West Sacramento in California.
DSD’s unique carport designs enable longer spans of canopy that are more energy-dense and require fewer support beams than other solutions on the market, which reduces costs and causes less disruption of available parking spaces. Out of the eight projects, five include energy storage systems (ESS) with a collective capacity of about 5 MWh.
“At IKEA, we aim to have a positive impact on people and planet, which is why sustainability is embedded in every part of our business. We currently have 54 rooftop solar arrays atop 90% of our IKEA U.S. locations and Ingka Group, a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, has invested in two solar parks with 403-MW capacity in Utah and Texas. This addition of eight solar car parks is the latest in a series of investments IKEA has made in renewable energy, and marks a significant step forward in our goals to be climate positive,” says Jennifer Keesson, Country Sustainability Manager, IKEA Retail U.S.
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What better way to make use of all that square footage. I hope there are L2 EV chargers under it.
We love to see solar carports popping up across the US. There is so much unused space in parking lots, and huge swaths of heat-generating tarmac that is just sitting there. Solar carports are the perfect solution! Generate electricity, reduce heating, AND protect vehicles. Win, win, win!