Get excited, Earthlings who like the Earth: IKEA just announced a new program to sell energy-saving solar panels in each of its 17 UK stores. This means that with a little bit more effort than it takes to purchase a set of Billy bookcases, Brits can be doing their part to bring the world a little closer to sustainable energy.
The Swedish retailer will start selling photovoltaic (PV) systems to UK customers within the next 10 months, who will in turn save buckets of money every year. The Chinese-made setups stand to yield their new owners $US1200 in subsidies and energy savings annually. That also means it will take about seen years for buyers to recoup the approximately $US9200 it costs to buy the system (delivery and installation included) in the first place.
But the things do, eventually, pay for themselves. “You don’t have to care about the environment and climate change,” IKEA’s head of sustainability Steve Howard told The Wall Street Journal, “you can just care about the finances.”
This big move towards solar energy doesn’t come as a huge surprise for IKEA. First of all, there’s been evidence that the home furnishings chain has been thinking about getting into the solar panel sales business Oh wait… [Reuters]