by Emily Farah, EssentialPublicRadio.org | January 23, 2012

Robinson Township’s IKEA is helping Pittsburgh become more “green.” The company announced it will be installing solar panels at an additional 20 of its 44 U.S. stores, including the one in Robinson Township.

IKEA expects the 2,953 solar panels on the 221,000-square-foot Pittsburgh store to keep 684 tons of carbon dioxide from being released the environment in a year. That is the equivalent of the emmissions of 115 cars or powering 73 homes for a year.

The contractor for the Pittsburgh project is REC Solar, which expects completion to be sometime between mid-and late-summer.