Sweden may never take on the dimensions of a GW-scale market, but its current solar development can be described as sustained and steady. This year, solar’s performance in the Scandinavian nation may surpass that of 2018, which was the country’s best year ever, with around 180 MW of new PV installations added.
The Swedish government this year reduced its budget for the solar rebate scheme to $80 million, and also reduced its solar investment support from a disproportionate 30% to 20%. However, the reductions in support are largely in line with the falling prices of solar modules. The country also implemented several measures between 2017 and 2018 to facilitate solar development, including the cancellation of the solar tax for commercial PV and the removal of building permit requirements for rooftop solar installations.
Swedish businesses are demonstrating an increased appetite for cheaper and cleaner energy, resulting in the first small utility-scale solar arrays being developed. Last year, 8 MW of ground-mounted plants were connected to the grid. Furthermore, utility Göteborg Energi commissioned the country’s largest solar plant, a 5.5 MW project near Gothenburg. Similar projects are being developed by local municipality-owned utilities in places such as Kalmar, Luleå, Falu, Trollhättan and Lidköping.
The potential of this segment in the Nordics is still unclear, but signals from neighboring Denmark seems to suggest that we are just at the beginning of a new phase. It is worth noting that the Nordic countries already have significant experience with private PPAs from the wind sector, and this will also be valuable for developers and investors in the solar sector.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.