Ikea is coming to Colorado in 2011. That's exciting news to anybody who has ever lived near an Ikea, perhaps not so exciting to those who have not (but soon enough you'll understand.) Now if only we could convince Trader Joe's to set up shop in the state ... but I digress.Besides being a metropolis-sized shrine to all things Swedish, the Colorado Ikea will be unique among the retailer's U.S. stores in that the building will be heated and cooled using a geothermal system (or, more accurately, a ground-source heat pump). Ikea is working with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colo., to design a system that will meet the heating and cooling needs of such a colossal store -- if you've ever been to an Ikea you will know that they are immense buildings.
The system will draw heat / cool from the ground via a series of 130 holes bored into the ground under the store, each hole being 500 feet deep. While installing such a system is no small task, and comes at no small expense, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, a geothermal heat pump system can reduce energy consumption, and emissions, by up to 72% compared to traditional heating and air-conditioning equipment. If you can imagine the heating and cooling bill for a building the size of an Ikea, you can also imagine how a 72% savings (or even a 50% savings) can add up to big money very fast.
Read more from the NREL web site here, and SustainableBusiness.com here.
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