IKEA Canada Buys Industrial Wind Turbine Farm in Alberta

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer continues expand into the wind business.

The company said Nov. 14, that it has agreed to buy a 20-industrial wind turbine farm in southern Alberta from Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd. The 20-turbine project is expected to generate about 161 gigawatt-hours of power yearly.

In August, IKEA bought a wind farm in Ireland. The company plans to invest about     U.S$2.4 billion in wind and solar by 2015. The retailer pledged to own about 157 wind turbines worldwide and to continue installing solar panels. Currently, IKEA has more than 500,000 solar panels on its businesses in nine countries. IKEA said it strives to be energy independent by 2020.

The Alberta wind project is expected to be operational by fall of 2014. About 16 wind farms are connected to Alberta’s electrical grid.