Homeowners and housing associations are buying more solar panels in Finland than ever before. Their popularity has grown steadily for several years, but this spring’s price increases for electricity have pushed demand to a new level.
"From the beginning of the year, many customers waited a while longer and followed the development of electricity prices. In March, we started to notice that this is a new normal, and order volumes grew exponentially," said Joonas KinnunenBusiness Manager of Lumme Energia in Mikkeli, Eastern Finland.
More solar energy for “ideological reasons”
According to Kinnunen, more and more customers are choosing solar energy "for ideological reasons".
"For some customers, we don’t even focus on price; It is more about the customer wanting to generate electricity from renewable energy themselves," he said.
The war between Ukraine and Russia has also been affected Tapio TuomiDirector of Clean Energy Association.
"People want to protect themselves from insecurity by increasing their self-sufficiency," said Tuomi.
Lumme Energia is preparing for a busier summer than usual and the waiting lists for panel installations are record long. According to Kinnunen, consumers should hurry if they want solar panels in place before next fall.
"Normally our installation queue is from three weeks to a month, but currently the waiting time is over two months," said Kinnunen.
Severe winter weather, freight costs and material shortages
In addition to the global situation, installations are late due to the severe weather last winter. Kinnunen, for example, says that the installations planned for last December were delayed due to ice.
The popularity of solar electricity has risen steadily since 2016, according to a study published last month by the Clean Energy Association. According to Kinnunen, solar panels are cheaper than five years ago, but the price has started to rise again in the last year. So far, rising prices have not dampened demand, as the price of electricity is rising even faster, he pointed out.
According to Kinnunen, prices are raised by freight costs, growing demand and especially the shortage of materials. Much of Europe’s solar panels come from China, but imports of solar panels will decline in the future.
"We have enough panels for this year, but let’s see what the situation is next year." Kinnunen said.
The increase in sales is also due to the fact that many people buy a little more solar panels than they need, Tuomi said. Customers can now earn more revenue by selling their surplus electricity to local facilities. The proliferation of electric cars is also affecting.
"Many people who buy solar panels have either just bought an electric car or are planning to buy one," said Tuomi.
Source: The Nordic Page