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Smart Move: Both Chicagoland Ikea Stores Get Solar Panels

Photo via Daily Herald

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Both Chicagoland Ikea stores have taken a short break from their meatballs with lingonberries and officially plugged-in the solar panels. These are among the first installations and now 14 more locations will be making the improvement. We're about to get all nerdy here: The total square footage of the projects is 248,700 square feet using 8,463 panels which are an Illinois record. Oh yeah, these two impressive arrays of panels are the two largest in the state.

The Bolingbrook store which is 310,000 square feet on 23 acres, by adding these panels, is reducing 897 tons of CO2, or countering the effect of 176 cars’ emissions or powering 112 homes. In Schaumburg, the store is even bigger at 450,000 square feet on 30 acres and by topping their roof off with this new equipment, is the reducing 713 tons of CO2, countering the effect of 140 cars’ emissions or powering 89 homes. What's next? Electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lots?
· IKEA [Official Site]