Vattenfall to Spend $123 Million on Solar Drive

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Swedish energy major Vattenfall (Stockholm) has announced that it will invest 100 million euro ($123 million) in large-scale solar energy projects over the next two years as part of its plan to become a fossil-free energy supplier within a generation.

The company will focus its investment in two areas, from the development of large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) farms in locations where existing infrastructure can be used to reduce costs and the supply of decentralised solar energy generation services for both private customers and business customers. Vattenfall pointed towards its dual-purpose Parc Cynog facility in Wales, where it deployed 18,676 solar panels at the existing windfarm. It has total solar capacity of 5 megawatts (MW) and can power 1,440 homes in Wales.

"Solar power is an important supplement to wind power as a renewable source of energy," explained Magnus Hall, Vattenfall's president and chief executive officer. "We are now increasing the investment budget for solar power to satisfy our customers' increased interest and demand--from electricity consumers, who can obtain electricity from our future solar farms, but also from potential customers, who want to both consume and generate electricity from solar power."

Vattenfall is investing in three large-scale solar power installations at its existing plants in Velsen, Hemweg and Eemshaven (the Netherlands). They will have a total capacity of 10.5 MW. It also plans to invest in the Haringvliet solar farm which has just agreed a subsidy with the government and which will have a total capacity of just under 40 MW and boast more than 130,000 solar panels. It will be able to power approximately 11,000 Dutch households. The solar farm will be combined with the Haringvliet windfarm which has six turbines.

Vattenfall's increased solar push was evidenced in February when its Nuon subsidiary agreed to buy the output of three solar farms in the Netherlands with a combined capacity of 38 MW. The projects include Middelburg (14 MW), Emmeloord (12 MW) and Uden (12 MW).

Last month, Industrial Info reported that Vattenfall was spearheading an alliance to allow Sweden to become the first country in the world to produce fossil-free steel. Alongside steel producer SSAB (NASDAQ OMX:SSAB A) (Stockholm) and Sweden's state-owned mining giant LKAB (Lulea), they are investing in the HYBRIT initiative that will use hydrogen from electricity produced by renewable energy instead of coking coal for ore-based steel making at the Lulea Steel Works in the north of the country. For additional information, see February 19, 2018, article - World's First Fossil-Free Steel Project Green Lit in Sweden.

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