IKEA won’t just sell you smart lights — it’ll soon sell you the electricity to power those lights, provided you live in the right country. Electrek notes that IKEA has revealed plans to sell clean energy to Swedish homes through a Strömma subscription service. Pay the (as yet unmentioned) fee and you’ll get certified solar- or wind-generated electricity with usage you can track through a mobile app.
The home furnishings giant didn’t say whether it would expand the clean energy sales to other countries, although it hoped to let people “use and generate” renewable energy in “all our Ingka Group markets” by 2025. The company already sells solar panels.
The retailer is no stranger to eco-friendly efforts. It stopped selling non-LED lights and will soon drop non-rechargeable alkaline batteries. It’s even planning to turn a Swedish city into a sustainable community. And there’s little doubt this will help burnish IKEA’s public image. It can address concerns about the chain’s environmental impact by serving as a clean energy source.
It’s still a significant move, though, and we wouldn’t be surprised if other larger stores followed suit. It’s not just a feel-good effort that could reduce emissions — sales of excess clean energy could recoup costs and boost profits.
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Engadget.
