Solar power generation in Sweden is far from required capacity to help with transition towards 100% renewables in the power sector by 2040. Decentralized PV system attracts attentions given the conflicts of future increasing demands and land scarcity in the urban areas. However, it is not easy to implement it due to challenges on local conditions and lack of references. This paper aims to propose an overview of the potential of small-scale grid-connected PV systems in a Swedish context and offer an example for urban PV system planning in Sweden or high latitude areas. A model considering weather, space, infrastructures and economics is developed and implemented with a real case in the Swedish context. The findings verify the technical and economic feasibility of urban decentralized rooftop PV systems in the Swedish context. It is found that this kind of system does have considerable power potential in the Swedish context without land requirements. This kind of PV system could be a promising option for future power generation which satisfies part of demands and reduces pressure on external grids. The full potential could be only achieved with improved infrastructures, and the profitability of the system relies heavily on market and political conditions. This study can be a refence for other high latitude areas.

PV technologies are regarded as one of the most promising renewable options for the transition towards Net Zero. Despite the rapid development of PV systems in recent years, achieving the necessary goals requires more than a threefold increase in annual capacity deployment by 2030. However, current PV systems often fall short of optimal performance due to improper installation angles. In high-latitude cold regions, the actual PV generation capacity is frequently overestimated due to the omission of snow conditions. This study introduces a novel model designed for high-latitude regions to predict local optimal PV installation angle that maximizes PV power generation, utilizing historical weather big data, including snowfall and melting effects. A case study is presented within a Swedish context to demonstrate the implementation of these methods. The results highlight the crucial role snow conditions play in determining PV performance, resulting in an average reduction of 14.7% in annual PV power generation. Optimal installation angle could yield approximately a 4.8% improvement compared to common installation angles. The study also explores the application of snow removal agents, which could potentially increase PV generation by 0.1–2.3%. Additionally, the new PV installation angle successfully captures the impact of the local weather changes on PV power generation, potentially serving as a bridge between climate change adaptation and future PV power generation endeavors.

To catch up with the sustainability transition progress, the global capacity of PV system is predicted to grow dramatically in the following decades, including high-latitude regions. To effectively use the urban space resource for PV power generation in the high-latitude areas, wall-mounted PV system is becoming an attractive solution. This paper evaluates the potential of wallmounted PV system in the high-latitude areas with a case study in Swedish contexts through a PV power generation model by considering weather conditions (including snowfall, icing and melting), orientation, and economics. The key performances are compared with rooftop fixed-tilt angle PV systems in Swedish contexts. Although the annual power generation of the wallmounted PV system is around 5% lower under heavy snow conditions, its power generation during the snow season (from October to April) increases significantly. In general, the power generation in March almost doubled and the increase could be more than 25% in April. Therefore, wall-mounted PV system can contribute to the winter electricity supply in high-latitude areas, when the electricity price is high.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) generation strongly relies on weather conditions, which will be significantly affected by future climate change. Traditional methods for estimating PV power generation potential often overlook detailed PV installation factors and snow impacts, leading to inaccuracies in high-latitude areas. We assess future PV performance in Sweden using a new validated PV installation model that incorporates air temperature, radiation and snow conditions. Applying this model to four Swedish cities under two future climate change scenarios (SSP1- 2.6 and SSP3-7.0) and three climate simulations, we project an approximate 5% increase in PV generation with optimal installation angle. The combined effects of air temperature and snowfall are as crucial as solar radiation for PV power generation in Sweden. Thus, the PV generation change will be relatively limited (<30 kWh/kWp) by 2100 in the future. An optimized tilt angle is obtained for all the four cities, which could help increase PV generation by 3-6% compared to standard commercial angle. While limited by the number of climate simulations and study sites, our findings provide valuable insights into PV potential in a changing climate.  

Bifacial PV technology is attracting attention from both public and academics since it has higher power density and lower levelized cost of electricity (LCoE) when compared to conventional monofacial PV modules. However, due to the complexities of snow effects, there is still lacking detailed analysis for evaluating its techno-economic performance in high latitude areas. This paper aims to provide an overview of the feasibility of urban bifacial PV systems with a Swedish case. Both monofacial and bifacial modules are modeled and compared by considering weather conditions, shading effects, space requirements, and economic factors under two different operation modes. The results imply that bifacial PV systems can produce 9.1-12.8% more electricity with snow conditions and achieve lower LCoE by 8.8 – 9.7% on average. Based on weather conditions in the high-latitude areas, bifacial PV systems show both technical and economic competitiveness compared to monofacial PV. However, self-sufficiency and self- consumption for bifacial PVs are quite similar with around 2% difference. In addition, though it is potentially profitable over the lifetime, NPV and payback year heavily rely on market conditions, such as electricity prices, discounted rates and subsidies.