In the countryside outside aberdeen, seven turbines spin in the breeze. The wind farm near Huntly may look like any other, but it is not owned by a power company or local entrepreneur. This month it was bought by Ikea, the Swedish flat-pack furniture behemoth.  Ikea is not always associated with environmental friendliness.  Its big out-of-town stores are difficult to reach by public transport, forcing customers to drive. Its products are cheap and disposable. In the past the Environmental Investigation agency has linked it to the use of illegally felled timber from China - although Ikea denies this and now campaigns for tougher laws on logging.  Nonetheless, the company plans to use its Scottish purchase as the first step in a drive to power its British stores from entirely renewable sources. The Huntly wind farm generates up to 25m kilowatt hours of electricity each year, equal to 30% of Ikea's consumption. Ikea said it would look for similar sites to get closer to its target.  The chain is also installing solar panels on the roofs of its stores. Branches in Milton Keynes, Edmonton (north London), Southampton and Warrington have each been fitted with 4,000 panels in the past few weeks. In all, Ikea expects to install 39,000 panels across the nation at a cost of ?4m.  The moves will cut the company's environmental impact. Just as important, they will help its bottom line: Ikea spends about ?10m on fuel each year.  a handful of other wellknown firms are experimenting with sourcing their own renewable energy. audi, the carmaker owned by Volkswagen, is investing tens of millions of euros in North Sea wind power. Toyota recently built a solar farm at its assembly plant in Derbyshire.  Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer at Ikea, said he expected more companies to follow, but added that the longterm nature of investing in renewables made it difficult for publicly listed firms.  "We are owned by a Dutch foundation, so we haven't got any shareholders. all the profits we make are reinvested or given away," Howard said. "We have money in our treasury and we would much rather invest it in renewable energy than invest it in government bonds. [In contrast] there's a real challenge for listed companies. I have talked to many chief executives and they would love to do the sorts of things we do, but they can't because of the ownership model - it's too short term."  Ikea was started during the second world war by the 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, using money his father gave him for doing well at school. Kamprad took the name from his initials plus the first letters of the farm where he grew up - Elmtaryd - and his home town, agunnaryd in south Sweden.  The company boomed as western consumers got richer and demand for affordable homewares soared. Last year, Ikea made a profit of (EURO)2.7 billion (?2.4 billion) on sales of (EURO)23.5 billion. It has more than 300 outlets in america, Europe and asia. Kamprad, now 85, is among the richest people in the world with an estimated fortune of ?3.7 billion.  Ikea's size has exposed it to reputational issues. It processes about 13m pine logs each year for its products, making it one of the biggest consumers of virgin forest. Four years ago, a paper submitted by the Environmental Investigation agency to the US House of Representatives named Ikea as one of the main companies sourcing timber from the Sino-Russian border region, where illegal felling is endemic. Ikea insisted it tried not to use illegally logged timber and said