Sweden's cumulative installed solar power capacity at the end of 2018 reached 411 MW, which is a 78% jump from the 231 MW reported a year back, according to Swedish Energy Agency Energimyndigheten. In 2018, the country installed 180 MW new PV, in 2017, it was 91 MW.
With 10,200 new grid-connected solar power plants installed during the year, the total number of installations add up to around 25,500, increasing 67% YoY.
At least 50% or 205 MW of the 411 MW comes from system sizes in the range of 20 kW to 1 MW, followed by 46% or 189 MW from systems smaller or equal 20 kW systems, and only 4% or 17 MW from those with over 1 MW capacity.
"We see that plants with an installed power above 1,000 kW grew a lot during 2018 both in number and installed power. The largest plants have more than doubled compared to 2017 – from just under 8 MW to over 17 MW," said the agency's statistician, Jeffrey Berard.
A major concentration of solar power systems can be seen in Västra Götaland County, Skåne County or Stockholm County that claim 43% of the total installed capacity. These counties along with Östergötland account for half of the country's installed solar power.
According to a Eurostat report published in February 2019, 11 member nations of the European Union have already achieved their 2020 renewable energy targets of a 20% share in gross final consumption. Sweden was found to have the highest share of renewables in its gross final consumption of energy at 54.5% in 2017 (see 2020 RE Target Achieved By 11 EU Nations). The country's official national target for its renewable energy share is 49% by 2020, according to the European Commission.
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