Ilmatar, a Finnish renewables developer, has secured permits to build the 55MW Knihult solar farm in southern Sweden.

The Knihult solar farm will be located in Småland and will occupy a total area of 54 hectares (ha).

It will have a 20MW battery energy storage facility, allowing it to supply the generated power as needed.

Construction will begin in spring 2024 and grid connection is scheduled for early 2025.

The project will be built on land previously used for peat extraction, and Ilmatar stated that the area will be restored to a wetland before the solar farm’s construction. It is unsuitable for food production owing to its earlier use.

Ilmatar Energy CEO Juha-Pekka Weckström stated: “I am excited to see Ilmatar’s growth in Sweden. We have said that we are strongly committed to starting renewable energy production in Sweden, and Knihult is a great concrete step forward in our journey.

“In general, we have succeeded well in finding and leasing suitable land for solar energy production, especially taking into consideration the challenging grid situation.”

Ilmatar Solar managing director Christian Gustafsson stated: “More renewable energy is needed to accelerate green transition. Solar energy has immense potential in Sweden.

“Knihult’s solar farm will be our first, but by no means last. I look forward to starting building it and then connecting the farm to the grid.”

The company began operations in Sweden in 2022. In June 2023, it announced the planned construction of a 350MW solar plant in Vermland County’s Grums municipality in central Sweden.

It signed a 50-year lease agreement with landowners in the municipality to build the solar farm on 300–400ha of leased land.