Pilot project for electrified fossil-free maintenance in solar park receives new government funding

Alight, Husqvarna and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences' joint pilot project for fossil-free electrified mowing of vegetation in solar parks received 4 million SEK in funding from the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova, last year. Now the project has been extended until June 2023 and received an additional investment of 2.5 million SEK.

The pilot project is the first of its kind in fossil-free mobile work machines in solar parks and the autonomous lawn mower was implemented in spring 2022 in Alight’s utility-scale solar park (18 MW) in Skurup, Sweden. The project consists of knowledge building, implementation, execution and evaluation.

The project investigates both how electrified autonomous vegetation management should be designed to avoid shading and damage to the solar panels, and how to achieve high energy production and maintain ecosystem functions, such as biodiversity.

The final report of the project is due in August 2023.

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.