Ikea Store Geothermal Heating
Ikea Store Geothermal Heating
Ikea installing geothermal heating in new stores in Sweden
home > geothermal | newsSwedish IKEA stores already obtain over 90% of their energy needs from renewable sources - primarily hydro power with some wind power. With their new store in Karlstad, Sweden, IKEA are going one step further using geothermal power sourced from the store's site.
101 holes are being drilled 5 metres apart and 120 metres deep into the ground to tap into the 50+ degree Celcius water found there - naturally heated by the Earth. This source of free energy will cover 85% of the heating needs and 75% of the air conditioning needs of the finished store with electricity required only to pump water around the system.
The energy sourced from the ground by this installation is equivalant to 1,200kW of heating, or 800kW of cooling. This will reduce carbon emissions by 2,200 tonnes annually.
Already the Karlstad site is one of Sweden's largest geothermal installations and IKEA are planning similar systems for stores in Malmö, Helsingborg, and Uppsala. IKEA are aiming to have all its stores around the world powered and heated 100% with renewable energy by 2012 while at the reducing overall energy consumption from 2007 levels by 25% by the same time.
IKEA recently distrubuted 60,000 energy saving CFL lightbulbs to their 10,000 UK staff free of charge as part of their Bulb for Life giveaway. Each bulb can be returned for a free replacement when it comes to the end of its operational lifetime. This will save UK IKEA workers a total of £400,000 annually in electricity costs, and each pack of 6 energy saving bulbs will save approximately 1 tonnes of carbon emissions (compared to standard incandescent bulbs).
Article Last Modified: 09:45, 6th Feb 2008
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