IKEA may have just fired the latest salvo in the clean energy revolution. Within the next 10 months, IKEA will begin selling flat-pack solar panel kits to retail customers in all of its 17 U.K. stores. And if that experiment is successful, IKEA could roll out the experiment to stores in the United States and the rest of the world. That means that, while shopping at IKEA for cheap, affordable furniture, you can now stock up on solar panel kits to transform your home into an energy-saving showcase.
The innovative Swedish company already uses solar panels to power 40 of its U.S. locations, and is making available the same technology to the mainstream public. The same way you might navigate through the aisles of an IKEA picking up well-designed items at low prices – while simultaneously having a bit of fun with the delightfully absurd Swedish names for the products — you will also be able to load a few flat pallets of IKEA solar energy panels into your cart. Almost everyone can imagine checking out of IKEA with a DIY solar panel package (even if it costs almost $10,000) – something that’s not necessarily the case with other forms of renewable energy. (Presumably, it’s much more difficult to create flat-pack mini-nuclear reactors for the home.) . . .
