By Nora Buli
OSLO (Reuters) - Ingka, which owns the majority of IKEA stores worldwide, is seeking its first renewable investment opportunities in South Korea and Japan, with offshore wind the most promising option, the head of its investment arm said.
Ingka Investments has rapidly grown into a major owner of renewable energy assets in Europe as a means to decarbonise its own business as well as its wider supply chain, Peter van der Poel, its managing director, told Reuters.
"We are still actively looking in Europe but we're also still looking, for instance, in South Korea and in Japan, where we also have presence," Van der Poel said, adding this could be any type of renewable investment.
The company has no investments in wind or solar in either of the two Asian countries at the moment, and given the high prices of land, offshore might be the most feasible way of entering those markets, he added.
Japan aims to have 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power projects by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040 and in March the government expanded the area for installation of turbines to also include exclusive economic zones (EEZ).
Ingka Investment has earmarked 7.5 billion euros for investments into renewable energy by 2030, of which 4 billion euros are already committed, with the company owning 2.5 gigawatt (GW) of capacity to date.
Van der Poel said Ingka is aware of the challenges of higher costs, inflation and supply chain bottlenecks faced by the offshore wind sector, but is taking a long-term view.
"We see that offshore wind is a significant part of the decarbonisation for us, but also for Europe," he added.
Last month, the company was part of the winning group for Norway's first commercial offshore wind farm auction that also included Japanese-backed partner Parkwind.
"We have scrutinized (this) business case and we remain confident that we will be able to make (it) work," Van der Poel said of the Norwegian plans.
The partners are planning for 90 windmills of 17 megawatt (MW) capacity each and aim to be operational in 2030.