{"id":2810,"date":"2011-12-06T15:24:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=2810"},"modified":"2011-12-06T15:24:25","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:24:25","slug":"would-you-like-some-solar-with-your-swedish-meatballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/06\/would-you-like-some-solar-with-your-swedish-meatballs\/","title":{"rendered":"Would You Like Some Solar With Your Swedish Meatballs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2815\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Rope lines await shoppers ahead of the grand opening of the new Ikea this summer in Denver.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/119896356.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2815\" title=\"Customers Line Up For Opening Of Ikea Store In Colorado\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/119896356-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/119896356-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/119896356-220x146.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/119896356.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rope lines await shoppers ahead of the grand opening of the new Ikea this summer in Denver, which uses a geothermal heating system.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The blue-and-yellow Swedish furniture giant is going green. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ikea.com\/us\/en\/\">IKEA<\/a> announced today plans to install solar panels on all of its stores in the South, including three in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The panels are expected to be installed by next summer, and combined will generate 10.7 megawatts, with the three Texas stores generating about half of that, or enough to power 434 homes for a year. The company also has solar installed at twelve other locations, with eleven others underway. Once these next ten stores have solar panels, the company will have a solar generating capacity of over twenty-six megawatts, which double the amount produced by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cps-satx.com\/Services\/Generate_Deliver_Energy\/Solar_Power\/Blue_Wing_Solar_Farm\/\">Blue Wing solar farm<\/a>\u00a0in San Antonio, the largest photovoltaic energy plant in the Texas.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/02\/why-so-few-solar-farms-in-texas\/\">Why So Few Solar Farms in\u00a0Texas?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/10\/27\/can-green-roofs-work-in-texas\/\">Can Green Roofs Work in\u00a0Texas?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/02\/power-plant-shutdowns-delays-could-mean-more-blackouts-next-year\/\">Power Plant Shutdowns, Delays Could Mean More Blackouts Next\u00a0Year<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/11\/does-the-keystone-pipeline-delay-actually-hurt-green-energy\/\">Does the Keystone Pipeline Delay Actually Hurt Green Energy?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/Solar-Energy-Power-by-Daniel-Reese-01-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/texas-solar-power\/\">Texas Solar\u00a0Power<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/09\/Texas_Renewable_Energy-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/texas-renewable-energy-targets\/\">What Are The Texas Renewable Energy Targets?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>Unlike other retailers who get solar power by purchasing credits from solar energy providers or leasing out their roof space, IKEA is taking the unique step of building and operating its own solar power resources. The company&#8217;s embrace of solar is helped by recent gains in efficiency and affordability in the solar industry. &#8220;It&#8217;s really only been in the past three years where the technology has gotten affordable or feasible to\u00a0purchase solar\u00a0outright,&#8221; says Joseph Roth, a spokesperson for IKEA.<\/p>\n<p>How much of the stores&#8217; energy will be provided by the solar panels? IKEA declined to answer exactly, saying they are a privately-owned company and can&#8217;t release that information.\u00a0&#8220;It provides a significant amount,&#8221; says Roth, &#8220;but not necessarily all of it.&#8221; The company says it will result in major savings. If the panels ever end up producing more energy than the stores need, Roth says they&#8217;d be in a position to sell excess power back into the grid.<\/p>\n<p>The company estimates it will take six months to install, inspect and permit the panels at its stores in Houston, Frisco and Round Rock. The Round Rock store, outside of Austin, may take longer, as its currently undergoing expansion.\u00a0The company is contracting with\u00a0<a href=\" http:\/\/www.recgroup.com\/\">REC Solar<\/a>, a Norwegian company,\u00a0to build and install the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The blue-and-yellow Swedish furniture giant is going green. IKEA announced today plans to install solar panels on all of its stores in the South, including three in Texas. The panels are expected to be installed by next summer, and combined will generate 10.7 megawatts, with the three Texas stores generating about half of that, or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2810"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2821,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions\/2821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}