Norway’s PV capacity hits 373 MW

Norway reached 373.0 MW of cumulative installed PV capacity spread across 20,216 solar plants at the end of April, according to new figures from the country's grid operator, Statnett, through its Elhub unit.

The country added 70.1 MW of new PV installations in the first four months of 2023. By comparison, it installed 152.7 MW last year and 42.7 in 2021.

The largest share of the cumulative capacity is represented by residential PV systems below 20 kW in size, followed by installations ranging in capacity from 20 kW to 100 kW, solar arrays with capacities of 100 kW to 500 kW, and solar systems with capacities ranging from 5oo kW to 1 MW.

The growth of the past two years is mainly attributable to rising electricity prices Ali Arfa, data manager at EUPD Research, told pv magazine in November. Between 2023 and 2026, Norway could add 285 MW of residential capacity, 360 MW of commercial arrays, and 640 MW of large-scale projects, according to EUPD Research. The research firm said the country could potentially reach 1.6 GW of cumulative PV capacity by the end of 2026 and add 500 MW of capacity every year thereafter until 2030, to hit 3.6 GW by the end of the decade.