| Work Detail |
Production is now underway at Sweden’s first large-scale agrivoltaics park, owned and operated by Svea Solar. A power purchase agreement is in place with a local vertical farmer for the electricity produced, while the farm underneath the solar panels will produce rapeseed, ley and wheat on a rotational basis. Swedish solar energy company Svea Solar has developed Sweden’s first large-scale agrivoltaics park. The 6 MW solar park, located in the Gullspång municipality of western Sweden, covers 13 hectares. It features a total of 8,680 panels installed as a 2P single axis tracker system, designed to withstand high wind and snow loads. Work began on the project last November and the park was inaugurated towards the end of last month. A power purchase agreement (PPA) is in place with a locally-based indoor vertical farming specialist, Ljusgårda, which will procure the energy produced for its annual lettuce production. Meanwhile, the land under the panels will continue to be cultivated by farmer Ekoväx to produce rapeseed, ley and wheat on a rotational basis. Pieter Godderis, Svea Solar’s Managing Director of Solar Parks, told pv magazine the project represents a “local sustainability trinity”. “For me its an example of how solar can actually work in a local ecosystem that is very modern and sustainable,” Goddersis said. “We achieved it without a single krona or euro of subsidy, its completely a result of the collaboration between these three companies.” Swedish research association Solve will be conducting analysis of how crop growth is affected by being grown between the rows of solar panels. Godderis says he envisages further agrivoltaic projects in the future. “We are in dialogue with landowners with fertile agricultural land where there is cultivation ongoing to see if we could have similar systems,” he explained. In August, Svea Solar signed a collaborative agreement with Sveaskog, Sweden’s largest forest owner, to develop 2 GW of solar across the country over a five-year period. |
