A man tries out a sofa at an Ikea store in Gwangmyeong, South Korea, on Feb 3, 2016.OSLO - 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.
"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. Japan aims to have 10 gigawatts 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 .
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.