We love Ikea. Cheap furniture, endless parts for hacking projects and of course, the knowledge that you are no longer an individual bu that you share your tastes with half of the entire developed world.

Ikea's innovation was to cut storage and transport costs with flat-pack furniture, and at the same time bring some simple and attractive design to mass manufacturing. Now the Swedish company plans to bring this buying power to alternative energy. Johan Stenebo of Ikea spinoff company Greentech will invest $75 million in solar companies and wants the retail giant to start selling the products in Ikea store in two to four years.

And it won't just be solar. Water saving products and other environmentally friendly tech will also find their way into the blue and yellow superstores. This is huge. One of the biggest hurdles to solar power is cost. If Ikea can drive those prices down, and also make them easy to buy, solar could really be coming to the mass market. Of course, all the gas you use driving back to the store to collect the missing screws might offset the the environmental benefits a little.

IKEA Puts $U.S. 75 Million Toward Cheap Solar [Tree Hugger]