Solar energy focus in project: “Sunny farms in the North”

Sunny farms in the North is a project with the aim of increase knowledge about the production and storage of solar energy for farms in the regions Norrbotten and Västerbotten. Project owner The Federation of Swedish Farmers, works in collaboration with the North Sweden Energy Agency and RISE ETC. Together, the project will organize activities around knowledge raising, procurement, installation and follow-up of solar energy systems.

The purpose of the project is to increase farmers’ knowledge about solar energy and storage in order to increase the proportion of solar energy and the degree of self-sufficiency in agriculture in northern Sweden. During the project period, the project group will help farmers with orders for solar plants through knowledge raising and joint procurement. The project is aimed at farms that produce, raise or cultivate agricultural and horticultural products, which includes grain, milking, animal husbandry and animal husbandry for example animal production.

The project has collaborated with students from Luleå University of Technology in a pilot study before project start and also in one project focusing on battery storage, to dimension battery storage for active farms and investigate the benefits battery storage has for both farmers and electricity network companies.

There has been great interest in the project and seven seminars have been arranged with 160 participants. At the seminars cases for solar energy built on the conditions in the region have been presented as well as detailed financial calculations. The activities have included preparing material for procurement based on the interest among the active farmers.

Funders of the project are the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, The Federation of Swedish Farmers, The Norrbotten Region, The Västerbotten Region, The County Administrative Board of Norrbotten, The County Administrative Board of Västerbotten, The Längmanska Entrepreneurship Fund and the Green Development Center.