Sweden allocates $25.6 million for solar rebates in 2017

The Swedish Energy Agency Energimyndigheten announced it has provided 225 million SEK ($25.6 million) in funds for the support of small-sized PV projects in 2017. In 2016, the agency allocated the same sum, while in 2015 150 million SEK were provided. Overall, the agency has allocated 885.5 million SEK in the period between 2009 and 2016 through the program.

The funds will be used to finance small-sized PV projects under the country’s solar rebate scheme.

Under the scheme, homeowners and private or public companies are entitled to receive a rebate that covers part of the cost of installing a PV system. A single PV project is eligible to receive financial support up to a maximum 1.2 million SEK ($136,742). The cost of a project cannot exceed 37,000 SEK ($4,216) per kW installed.

Most of the financial resources was allocated in the provinces of Stockholm (33.9 million SEK), Skåne (37.4 million SEK), Västra Götaland (34.3 million SEK), Halland (14.7 million SEK) and Uppsala (13.2 million SEK).

According to the latest statistics released by Energimyndigheten, Sweden reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of around 127 MW at the end of 2015. The country added 13.9 MW of PV systems in 2014 and 9.6 MW in 2013. Most of this solar capacity was installed through the solar rebate scheme.

Last week, the  Swedish government has submitted a proposal to effectively cancel the tax on power generated by renewable energy systems for self-consumption. A week earlier, the government had also announced another plan to drop building permits for PV.