Although House Republicans may have not gotten the memo yet, businesses are flocking to renewable energy as a smart business investment. Ikea already plans on doubling its renewable energy investment to $4 billion by 2020, months after announcing it will pursue renewables to cut costs and protect business from from the volatile fossil fuel market.
“Looking at how quickly we’re expanding and our value chain, we will most likely have to double the investments once more after 2015,” CEO Mikael Ohlsson told Bloomberg News.
A slew of businesses have adopted renewables, precisely because they lower electricity costs. Earlier this year, 19 companies publicly urged Congress to extend a key wind tax credit, because electricity rates “consistently decrease when wind enters the market,” while companies like Walmart pursue solar. Interestingly, even a Wales coal museum has jumped at installing solar panels in order to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on its utility bill.
Despite a battering election year where Republicans held up renewable investment as a so-called failure, clean energy had a record-breaking year. Prices for wind turbines and solar panels have only kept dropping. This and $20 billion in private investment has helped make renewables — particularly wind — a top source of new electricity capacity last year.
