Sweden

Neoen and Alight have started building the 100 MW Hultsfred solar farm in Sweden, which will purportedly be the country’s largest solar installation upon completion.

Svea Solar solar parks managing director Pieter Godderis said the company was ‘really proud’ of the landmark deal with Scandanavian dairy titan Arla, which stipulates the Swedish independent power producer will provide the multinational 100 GWh of solar annually for a decade.

Midsummer and researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), say that their new tandem PV cell is suitable for the company’s Duo production equipment, which makes 56 mm x 156 mm CIGS cells on a flexible stainless steel substrate.

Sweden’s cumulative installed solar capacity hit 2.6 GW at the end of December.

Alight and Neoen have agreed to sell power to H&M from a 90 MW solar project under a long-term power purchase agreement. Construction will begin in the second half of 2023.

European Energy is ready to start building a 128.5 MW solar park in Sweden. The project was halted earlier this year, but that decision has since been reversed. The installation is expected to start generating electricity in 2024.

A Swedish team has inaugurated a pilot facility to mass produce algae material that can potentially boost silicon solar module efficiency by 4% and thin film by 36%. The algae are added to the encapsulant in silicon-based modules or to the anti-reflective coating on the glass of thin film modules. The team estimates the resulting modules would be 3.9% cheaper.

Data from the Swedish association Svensk Solenergi shows some 21,500 PV systems were installed in the first half of the year, with a 90% growth compared to the same period a year earlier. The trade body also expects a substantial upswing in the spring of 2023.

Swedish researchers have identified six business models for the country’s solar market and highlighted how companies differ significantly in their approaches from policymakers and scientists. They analyzed data from 241 solar companies.

Sweden’s cumulative installed PV capacity hit 1.59 GW at the end of December.