The Ikea Tempe store in NSW will boast a 990kW solar power system with construction already underway. It will be the largest single rooftop solar photovoltaic solar system installed in Australia!

The new Ikea solar system will consist of nearly 4000 Yingli polycrystalline solar panels, 43 SMA Sunny TriPower inverters and railing manufactured by Schletter PTY Ltd. It will use 8415 square meters of roof displacing 1500 metric tonnes of CO2 each year – the equivalent of taking 306 cars off our roads each year. The project is said to be completed by mid-September and will produce around 1 300 000kWhrs of clean energy for the building each year.

The solar system is being constructed by Kingspan Energy along with Canadian Solar. They have vast experience with large solar systems – earlier this year they installed the UK’s largest rooftop solar power system with a 5.8MW system installed on Jaguar Land Rover, which also happens to use the same Yingli polycrystalline solar panels. As part of Ikea’s company-wide sustainability plan it has pledged that all future stores built in Australia will have solar PV installed on it.

“This new IKEA system will be the “Rolls Royce” of rooftop solar PV systems when complete,” said Cormac Gray, Commercial and Engineering Manager of Kingspan Energy. “We have ensured that we are using the very best materials available for what we can only describe as an iconic solar PV installation for Australia.”

“Yingli Solar is the world’s largest solar manufacturer and we are delighted that IKEA has selected our solar photovoltaic modules for its flagship store at Tempe,” said Daman Cole, Managing Director of Yingli Australia. “IKEA has demonstrated its ambition to be environmentally sustainable through the switch to solar power and we hope this will inspire other businesses to think about how they are addressing their future energy needs. The implementation of a commercial installation of this scale is a great step forward in demonstrating how solar is good for businesses and a company’s bottom line.”

“We are proud to be associated with this globally renowned brand,” said Mark Twidell, Managing Director of SMA Australia. “SMA’s inverter technology can already be found in numerous IKEA PV systems across Europe.”