Finland

In the Programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s Government (20 June 2023), a goal for Finland to become a leader in clean energy and a positive climate handprint is highlighted. On 4 December 2025, the Government submitted the national Energy and Climate Strategy compiling the Government’s energy and climate policies to the Parliament as a report. The main focus of the strategy is on achieving the EU’s climate and energy targets for 2030 and the objectives of the Climate Act.

Approximately 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Finland come from energy production and consumption, including transport. One of the main solutions to achieve carbon neutrality is direct and indirect electrification of energy use with carbon-neutral electricity. In 2025, carbon-neutral electricity already accounted for 96% of Finland’s electricity production. Finland aims to become a key player in the hydrogen economy in Europe. In addition, Finland aims to lead the way in the capture and utilisation of biogenic carbon dioxide (technological carbon sinks). The increase of wind power and PV production highlights the importance of introducing various flexible solutions such as energy storage and system integration.

There are no specific national strategy nor objectives for PV electricity generation in Finland. Earlier PV has mainly been considered an energy technology that can be used to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings by producing electricity for self-consumption. However, interest in grid-connected PV systems has increased during the last few years.

To support PV installations, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and Business Finland can grant investment subsidies to renewable energy projects.  Energy aid may be granted to projects that promote new technology and its commercial utilisation. The support is only intended for companies, communities, and public organizations, and it is provisioned based on applications. The need for and level of aid are assessed on a case-by-case basis. Agricultural companies are eligible to apply for an investment subsidy of up to 40% for PV installations from the Economic Development Centres. Individuals are eligible for a tax credit for the labour component of the PV system installation. In 2025, the sum was up to 35% of the total labour cost, including taxes.

The research and development work at universities and research institutes is mainly funded by the Research Council of Finland and Business Finland, which also finance company-driven development and demonstration projects, as well as the European Union funding pro-grammes.

Research and development topics related to PV range from material science to PV systems and grid integration, and from nature assessment to solar economy. Research and development activities are spread out over a wide array of universities and research institutes: Aalto University, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Tampere University and Turku University, Metropolia, Satakunta and Turku Universities of Applied Science, as well as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), and the Finnish Environment Institute.

Presently, the market of grid-connected systems heavily outnumbers the market of off-grid systems. Since 2010, the number of grid-connected PV systems has gradually increased. In the beginning of 2025, the installed grid-connected PV capacity was estimated to be approximately 1250 MW. In 2025, PV represented 1.2% of the total electricity production in Finland.

The grid-connected PV systems are still mainly roof-mounted installations on public and commercial premises and in private dwellings. The first multi-megawatt ground-mounted PV plant in Finland, then with a total capacity of 5 MW, started its operation in 2018 in Nurmo, owned by Atria. The largest PV plant in Finland started its operation in 2025 in Utajärvi. This PV plant of 106,8 MW is owned by Utajärven Solarpark Oy (Skarta Energy). In recent years several companies have announced their plans for multi-megawatt scale PV plants, even up to a scale of hundreds of MW. According to Renewables Finland, in June 2025, there were approximately 26 200 MW of published solar power projects under planning in Finland.

Integrating battery energy storage systems in PV plants is often considered beneficial for balancing variable PV production. In addition, there is an interest to combine PV production with wind power production, thus balancing the variation of electricity production, using a common infrastructure, and improving the cost effectiveness of the projects.