Memphis firefighters get a chance to see the solar panels on the roof of the Ikea store.

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

Ikea has completed installing atop its Memphis store 4,424 solar panels, enough to power 297 cars or 205 homes a year, store officials announced Wednesday.

The massive array covers 250,676 square feet of the 271,000-square-foot store, which is about two months from opening near the southwest corner of Interstate 40 and North Germantown Parkway in Cordova.

Once the panels are wired and commissioned, the installation will be the largest rooftop solar array in Tennessee, Ikea spokesman Joseph Roth said.

The system should generate at 40 to 60 percent of the power needed for the store's air-conditioning, lighting and substantial food service.

The installation is Ikea's 44th solar project in the U.S. Unlike some other companies with rooftop solar systems, the Swedish-based company neither leases its rooftop space for solar arrays nor sells the power it generates. Ikea owns and operates each of its solar arrays.

While the company's Memphis solar installation costs in the millions of dollars, Ikea figures to recover its costs and then some, Roth saiid.

Worldwide, Ikea plans to have invested $2.5 billion in renewable energy.

Ikea's U.S. projects includes two wind farms, one in Texas and the other in Illinois.

Memphis's new Ikea store comprises two large, connected buildings. The taller one is a warehouse already full of metal racks to store the boxed furniture and other products that customers will pick up. The shorter building will house the showrooms and restaurants.