The Sol i Väst Project develops knowledge on PV Electricity

Sol i Väst (Solar in West) is a public funded three-years project (2017-2019) with the purpose to educate and increase knowledge about photovoltaic electricity, to help initiatives for procurement and building photovoltaic parks. During the project period the number of members and participating municipalities has increased and now it involves the majority of municipalities in the region Västra Götaland, which has 49 municipalities and 1,7 million inhabitants in total.

The project management, from Energikontor Väst and Innovatum AB, in Trollhättan Sweden, has developed tools and training material and has spread this publicly through meetings, webpages, seminars, conferences and newsletters. Feasibility studies, Profitability, Purchasing and Installation & Maintenance are some of the themes that has been explored as well as environmental impact, individual measurement and billing and, of course, electrical security. Project meetings have included lessons learned from participators, visits to reference facilities, keynote speakers, consultants and suppliers. The meetings have been well frequented and appreciated among members.

For the finale of the project, a Solar conference took place in October 2019 in Trollhättan. Over 90 persons attended and listened to a panel discussion about PV-volumes in electricity grids in national, regional and local perspectives and speakers in interesting parallel sessions.

The evaluation of the project showed that it has achieved significant results. Participators have given the highest grade of well performance to the management, and to the relevance of the developed tools and information folders. This training material is still available on the project’s web page and free to use. During the period, 14 500 m2 solar panels have been installed which give 2,6 GWh annually in Western Sweden. Even though Sol i Väst ended in December 2019, the management is looking into a continuation and development of the project for a further three years of period, including a wider audience like enterprises and new innovations in the realisation of the project.