Maveplan exploring opportunities to build solar parks in central and northern Sweden

The Just Transition Fund (JTF), created by the European Union, aims to mitigate the adverse effects of the climate transition by supporting the most affected territories and workers and to promote a balanced socioeconomic transition.

In Finland, the JTF is seeking to offset the adverse socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the objective to halve the use of peat for energy production by 2030.

Building solar parks in old peat production areas is a good way to mitigate these adverse effects. Since parks formed by large fields of panels can be up to hundreds of hectares in size, careful water management is required and therefore special expertise – especially when operating within the framework of ever stricter environmental legislation.

Maveplan’s expertise and experience in soil drainage solutions and geo-planning of solar parks provide a good starting point for the development of this business area. The company has launched a project supported by the JTF in cooperation with the Nordic Export Group, the purpose of which is to survey opportunities for building solar parks in central and northern Sweden.

“Building a solar park requires a drainage plan, which, typically, must also include water treatment and protection solutions,” says Maveplan Oy’s CEO Olli Utriainen. “The designer must also have good knowledge of local practices, as there may be significant regional differences in matters related to licensing, for example.”

One of the objectives of Maveplan’s JTF project is to explore licensing practices in central and northern Sweden related to water management planning. Utriainen explains that the goal is to investigate existing solar park projects as well as those currently under planning.

“We participated in the Energimässan event in May and have also established contacts with operators such as solar park builders. The project itself only covers the study, but, of course, we will aim to provide our expert services on the basis of the overall picture we receive when the construction of new parks is agreed.”

A total of EUR 93,000 of JTF funding has been granted to the project, which will last until the end of 2024.

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