„The trend is clear this year, solar installations are spreading in the municipalities and Borgholm has dared to invest heavily and quickly seen the results of the work. The important thing now is that we streamline the permit processes for large-scale solar power and demand transparency in the electricity grid so that more municipalities can take the same step towards cheap and renewable electricity," says Anna Werner, CEO of Swedish Solar Energy.
With 1,635 W of installed solar power per inhabitant, Borgholm municipality takes first place from Skurup in the ranking Solcellstoppen. The development is striking, with an increase of 73% in installed capacity per person from 2022. Borgholm's total installed capacity is 17 MW.
A lot happening also in northern Sweden
Sjöbo is in second place with 1,585 W per inhabitant and Skurup is in third place with 1,366 W per inhabitant. At the bottom is Gällivare with only 17 W of installed solar power per inhabitant.
Also see: Further growth of the Swedish PV market
Sweden's southern municipalities continue to dominate the top of the list, but a lot is happening in the north. Solar energy has no problem putting on its winter coat when needed, and has great potential to supply electricity to northern industrial investments.
The spread of solar electricity production across the country is good, both because it creates new jobs around the country and because it strengthens Swedish security as the electricity supply is decentralized.
Borgholm tops Europe
The total installed capacity in Sweden is now 3,973 MW. This is 66% more than in 2022 and 27 times more than at the beginning of 2017. At that time, there was only 14 W installed per inhabitant, which has increased to 376 W per inhabitant today. If all of Sweden had the same amount of solar power per inhabitant as Borgholm, the country would be the most densely solar-powered country in Europe, within striking distance of the top countries, the Netherlands (1 299 W/inhabitant), Germany (996 W/inhabitant) and Belgium (846 W/inhabitant).
Solar Power Europe
In 2023, 103 900 new solar PV installations were installed in Sweden and by the end of the year there were just over 250 000 installations in total. To reach the Swedish Solar Energy target of 30 TWh by 2030, a quota of 2 752 W/capita is required. (hcn)
