Ilmatar is developing a solar farm with an annual electricity generation capacity of up to 350 gigawatt hours and a rated output of 350 MWp in Grums, central Sweden. The production will meet the needs of 17 500 electrically heated private homes.
The Nordic energy company Ilmatar has made a 50-year lease agreement with landowners in Grums, Värmland, Central Sweden. The company plans to build a large-scale solar farm of 300–400 hectares on the leased land. It would make it one of the largest in Sweden.
The farm will be primarily built on production forest land, severely damaged by bark beetles and therefore not suitable to much else. The planned production capability of the new large-scale solar farm will be over 350 GWh of solar energy per year with a rated output of 350 MWp. It would be enough to meet the annual electricity demand of 17,500 houses.
The solar farm is the latest indication of Ilmatar’s strong growth in Sweden, and in less than a year, it has leased enough land to generate 4.2 terawatts of solar power per year. This meets the annual electricity demand of approximately 210,000 houses.
– We are strongly committed to expanding renewable energy production in Sweden and look forward to finishing construction and connecting the farm to the main grid as soon as all permits are in place. The Grums farm is a long-awaited boost for energy production and is of special local importance, comments Ilmatar Solar’s CEO Christian Gustafsson.
In December 2022, the Swedish Energy Agency predicted that electricity demand in Sweden may double by 2035. Investments in fossil-free production by the steel industry in Norrland have increased energy demand, while the war in Ukraine has resulted in a European energy crisis. At the same time, businesses are investing heavily in the expansion of fossil-free energy. Many landowners are happy to lease out their land for the expansion of solar energy.
– We are really excited about this collaboration with Ilmatar and the fact that we can contribute to the green transition in a very concrete way. In addition, we really appreciate Ilmatar’s approach that combines solar energy production with farmland, says Anders Bergenheim landowner of the area Ilmatar has leased.
Ilmatar’s Project Development Manager Robert Wedmo and landowner Anders Bergheim spoke to SVT about the project. Have a look here (in Swedish).
More information
Mikko Niimes
Manager, PR & Communications
Ilmatar
+358 40 533 2931
[email protected]
ILMATAR
Founded in 2011, Ilmatar is a Nordic energy company and an independent power producer that focuses exclusively on renewable energy. Ilmatar Energy’s business operations include the production of renewable energy as well as the development, construction and maintenance of renewable energy projects.
Ilmatar retains ownership of its projects throughout their lifecycle of up to 40 years. Ilmatar’s onshore and offshore wind power projects and solar power projects, at various stages of development in the Nordic countries, have a total capacity of 20 GW.
Ilmatar has offices in Helsinki, Malmö (Sweden), Mariehamn, Tampere and Oulu.