Swedish independent power producer (IPP) Alight Energy and Finnish project developer 3Flash have agreed to build a 120MW solar project in the Finnish town of Loviisa.
The companies submitted a planning application for the Aurinkopuisto project last week. They will begin work at the facility in early 2025, and expect to commission the project in 2027. Alight plans to “hold discussions with energy-intensive companies” for potential off-takers for the project’s power output, which will amount to around 155GWh per year.
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“In the big picture, our project supports Finland’s energy self-sufficiency and the achievement of climate goals,” said Alexander Rudberg, Alight’s country manager for Finland. “Next, we will continue discussions with companies interested in the power purchase agreement (PPA), who want to speed up their own sustainable development journey. Long-term contracts also ensure the financial profitability of the solar park.”
According to the Finnish Energy Agency, there was around 1GW of installed solar capacity in operation at the end of 2023, and Alight dubbed its latest project “one of the largest” commercial developments in the country. Over the summer, PV Tech Power looked at the solar sector of a number of European countries, including Finland, which was one of a number of countries to cross the 1GW of operating capacity threshold last year.
While solar power accounted for just 1% of Finland’s electricity supply in 2023, the government has a feed-in tariff scheme in place for new projects, and a target in its National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) to install 2.8GW of capacity by 2030. Trade body SolarPower Europe, meanwhile, expects Finland to have around 3GW of operating capacity by the end of the decade.
Alight has a further 100MW of capacity in its Finnish pipeline, in the form of the Eurajoki project in the west of the country. More recently, the company has announced plans to develop a 2GW portfolio, alongside raising funds for a further 220MW of capacity, in Sweden, as it looks to expand its presence in the Nordic countries.
