IKEA Buying Hoopeston Wind Farm

IKEA's U.S. subsidiary is buying a long-planned wind-energy project in eastern Illinois as part of the company's initiative to offset its power use with renewable energy generation.

Rob Olson is chief financial officer of the Swedish furniture retailer's U.S. business. He says IKEA plans to have Hoopeston Wind up and running by 2015.

"We are committed to renewable energy and to running our business in a way that minimizes our carbon emissions, not only because of the environmental impact, but also because it makes good financial sense," said Olson, in a press release.  "We invest in our own renewable energy sources so that we can control our exposure to fluctuating electricity costs and continue providing great value to our customers."

The company says the 98-megawatt wind farm should generate enough electricity to offset all of its U.S. power use.

A report in Forbes says the wind farm is expected to generate up to 380,000 megawatthours of renewable energy each year, which is equivalent to 165% of the electricity consumed by IKEA U.S.

IKEA and many other companies such as Google and Walmart have announced plans in recent years to use more renewable energy.  The company won't say what it is paying for the Hoopeston project.

It's buying it from Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy. That company will operate the wind farm.
 
IKEA becomes the yet-to-be-built project's third owner.