Swedish furniture giant IKEA announced on Thursday that it will start selling solar panels for households in the USA. It will partner with SunPower Corporation, an energy service provider, to create the Home Solar Service.
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IKEA Home Solar is now available in nine markets and could also appear in the Czech Republic. “We are not preparing a service in the Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia at this time. However, we are exploring options, as our goal is to give customers access to renewable energy sources, ”says Barbora Geršlová, Sustainability Manager at IKEA Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.
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The program in the United States will kick off in California this fall. “The launch of the Home Solar program in collaboration with IKEA will allow more people to take more control of their energy needs and our goal is to offer this clean energy service in other IKEA branches in the future,” said Javier Quiñones, CEO and Director of Sustainability. IKEA in the USA.
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Companies offering solar panels in the markets where IKEA operates will have a new competitor. In the USA, for example, it is Tesla Energy, a branch of Tesla, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. However, according to the Insider server, households are complaining about his company, especially about poor services and price increases of up to $ 75,000.
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The value of the home solar panel market in the U.S. market was estimated at approximately $ 9.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow further in the coming decade, according to Grand View Research.
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In the autumn of last year, Tesla accounted for only about two percent of the market for solar panels for households. In March, the solar industry magazine ranked Tesla Energy fourth in the US market, just ahead of IKEA’s SunPower Corporation.
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The photovoltaic market is expected to grow in the coming years. In the Czech Republic, interest in it increased by tens of percent last year, and demand continues this year. People reach for solariums mainly due to rising energy prices, because their own production allows them to reduce consumption and thus save.
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However, the industry is facing problems. In addition to rising prices for production materials, supply chain difficulties persist. In its latest financial report, Tesla said that the volume of solar installations fell by almost half at the beginning of the year due to import delays.
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Solar panel prices have been rising since last year. IKEA has not yet specified how much the installation will cost. According to Consumer Affairs, the average cost of assembly in the United States is approximately $ 12,000 (including 286.5 thousand crowns) after federal tax incentives.
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Last year, IKEA also began selling renewable energy to homeowners in Sweden through a system that allowed them to buy energy from solar and wind farms and monitor consumption in the application.
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