Swiss Retail Giant Becomes More Jolly, Green

This week, the Swiss retail giant IKEA completed it's fourth rooftop solar power installation in the US. The new installation in Burbank, CA is made up of 1,260 solar panels and has the capacity to generate as much as 421,000 Kilowatt-hours per year, or enough to power approximately 37 homes for an entire year.

The installation couldn't come at a better time. With the coming heat of spring and summer rolling on, electricity consumption usually peaks during the hot months as residents and businesses begin to turn on their air conditioners to help preserve sanity through coolness.

Marketing manager for Burbank Water and Power, Jeanetter Meyer, reported to Burbank Leader News that any additional electricity from IKEA'a new solar panels that the retain facility can't use will flow into the utility's grid, contributing to the total of clean, renewable energy that can be used by other consumers.

IKEA's new solar array is the third largest in the city of Burbank, following the arrays operating atop Costco and the Warner Brothers Studios. All of these large business contributions toward the solar power capacity in Burbank have helped the city already establish at least 33% of overall power supply that is generated from renewable sources, a new progressive requirement for all of California recently established by California's Governor Jerry Brown.