Major new solar park in southern Sweden enters operation
One of Sweden’s largest solar parks, located near Åhus in Skåne, has now entered operation. It is the size of 8 football fields and produces approximately 8 GWh of electricity a year, which is enough to power 1,600 houses. The investment is a joint initiative between Nolato, electricity company Bixia and solar energy company Alight.
Construction of the solar farm began last autumn and the project came about via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Nolato, Bixia and Alight. The agreement means that Alight will develop, own and operate the solar park, while Nolato, via electricity trading partner Bixia, undertakes to purchase all the electricity produced by for a minimum of ten years. Bixia has been managing Nolato’s energy portfolio, which is entirely renewable, for many years.
“We’re delighted about our partnership with Nolato and Bixia, which has facilitated the expansion of new green energy in Sweden. This project is leading the way for the industry towards more sustainable energy production, and showing that it’s possible in just one year to go from decision to a completed, utility-scale solar park that secures electricity needs for the long term,” said Harald Överholm, CEO at Alight.
The operational startup of the solar park marks a further step for Nolato towards achieving its ambitious sustainability target. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from their business operations is a top priority for Nolato, and investing in renewable electricity generated from sun and wind, optimizing goods transportation, reducing waste, cutting use of materials and using more renewable raw materials are all examples of action they are taking to achieve the target to reduce their CO2 emissions by 80% by 2025.
“It’s fantastic that the agreement we concluded last year is now starting to generate energy for our production facilities. Besides producing our own renewable electricity, reducing our environmental impact and securing some of our energy needs, we are also shielding ourselves from volatility in the electricity market for the period of the contract,” said Glenn Svedberg, Head of Sustainability for the Nolato Group.
“The electricity produced by the solar park accounts for roughly 15% of Nolato’s annual consumption in Sweden. Including a solar park in the customer’s price-hedging strategy adds considerable value. It’s a long-term and attractive price-hedging approach and it boosts renewable generation in southern Sweden, where there is a power generation deficit,” noted Marcus Annell, Head of Financial Trading at Bixia.
The solar park is financed in cooperation with Infranode. The project was initially developed by Subsolar.
Meredith Popolo
PR Director
meredith.popolo@alight-energy.com
About Alight
At Alight, we’re on a mission to kick carbon off the grid by helping energy-intensive businesses switch to solar. We develop, own and operate onsite and offsite solar projects across Europe and sell the clean energy to businesses at a low, fixed cost backed by a power purchase agreement (PPA), always independent of government funding or subsidies. By 2030, we aim to have an installed capacity of at least 5 GW, paving the way for a more sustainable future.
