EPV Aurinkovoima Oy, a wholly owned subsidiary of EPV Energy, is planning an investment to build an industrial-scale solar energy park. The new solar farm would produce around 90 GWh of electricity per year. The solar farm planned for Lapua received a boost when the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment granted the project investment aid of more than EUR 12 million in December.
Upon its completion, the Heinineva solar farm would be the EPV Group’s first industrial-scale solar park and one of the largest in Finland. This investment, if completed, would increase EPV’s renewable electricity production by 6%. At the same time, it would significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The new solar farm would excellently support EPV Energy’s New Electricity Revolution® strategy, which has renewable electricity at its core. Generated from emission-free sources, new electricity is the key enabler on the road to a new zero-emission world.
There has already been a long period of testing and development to get the project this far. As the project will be built on phased-out peat diggings, different types of foundations have also been extensively studied.
“The novelty value of the project lies in the size of the solar park. The project will also demonstrate new types of technology developed in Finland. The aim is also to develop a forecasting model for solar power production,” says Sami Kuitunen, EPV Solar Power’s Managing Director.
The investment project is scheduled to start during 2023. The final tests and commissioning will take place in late 2025. The realisation of the park will depend on the competitiveness of the solar cell technology, the cost-effectiveness of the construction and the investment needs of the shareholders.
EPV Energy has studied solar energy yield at its own solar power measuring facility since 2018
As a pioneer in zero-emission energy generation, EPV is constantly researching renewable energy technologies and energy production on the market. One example of this is its solar energy measuring station in Vuorenneva, Alavus, commissioned in September 2018. The metering station allows EPV to investigate and improve the predictability of solar power.
EPV Energy has its sights set on building even more solar parks
EPV’s plans are not confined to just this one park.
“EPV owns a lot of land that is suitable for this type of solar power generation, and we plan to use it for solar parks. EPV’s starting point is to select land in such a way that there is no need to prepare it or cut down trees to make way for the new solar farm,” Kuitunen explains.
EPV Energy is well placed to start industrial solar power generation, as the company already has solid experience in building wind farms. EPV Energy is one of the largest producers of wind power in Finland, having started its wind power programme as early as 2006. Right now, EPV Energy’s sixth wind farm is well on its way to completion in Närpes. Wind power is an important form of energy production for the company. In 2021, approximately 23% of EPV’s electricity generation was already coming from the wind.
Key figures for the planned Heinineva solar power plant in Lapua:
- Area size 170 hectares
- Plant’s total output 100 MWp
- Approximately 200,000 solar panels
- Output per panel 400 Wp
- Plant’s average output during its life cycle approximately 90–95 GWh per year
- Length of panel mounts 100–150 km
On 15 December 2022, the Finnish Government awarded aid of EUR 12 million from the EU’s (NextGenerationEU) Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to the Heinineva project in Lapua. The total sum of the project portfolio in the application was EUR 64.5 million.
For more information contact: Sami Kuitunen, Managing Director, EPV Solar Power, tel. 010 5055 025
Picture: Christoffer Björklund
