Finland’s state-run power giant Fortum has won a competitive bid held by Helsinki-headquartered retailing cooperative S Group to set up around 10MW of solar PV capacity across 40 of its commercial buildings in Finland.

It is claimed that this will be the largest selection of rooftop PV projects in the Nordics. Finland’s total solar power capacity stood just short of 35MW by the end of 2017.

Fortum is responsible for the project planning, management and equipment procurement. The installation work will be conducted by about 10 teams from ARE. Installations are expected to begin this spring, ready for completion in the autumn.

“The entire S Group has a shared goal to use our own renewable energy to produce 80% of the electricity we consume in 2025. Our sites’ electricity consumption peaks during summer, right when the sunlight lasts longer and is more intense. In the best cases, during summer we can produce enough solar energy to satisfy 100% of the electricity needs of one building,” said Mikko Halonen, managing director, S-Voima.

Fortum has forayed into solar energy in India where it has a notable installed base of utility-scale projects, having recently connected a 100MW solar plant to the grid at the Pavagada solar park in the Tumkur District of Karnataka. Fortum and Futurice have also started a pilot for an intelligent monitoring platform solution for household solar in India along with local firm Boond.