Introduction

Solar City Malmö has put focus on Malmös work to become Scandinavia’s leading area for solar energy.

Objectives and target audience

Solar City Malmö is a non-profit association dedicated to raise awareness of solar energy technologies in a balanced and professional way in order to increase interest and skills amongst different parties in the solar market and general public.  The association therefore organises training, seminars, exhibitions, study visits, theme days, conferences, technology competitions, information meetings for businesses, installers and councils, education for students, and advisory and dissemination services.  The association is also working at a national level for a functioning solar electricity market in Sweden and for continued support in the field of solar thermal and photovoltaic energy.  Solar City Malmö will build up a network and knowledge centre for solar energy.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Resources for the personnel (one co-ordinator) come from the City of Malmö. Investments are often co-financed by governmental subsidies. Members pay a membership fee (from 25 € per person per year to 250 € per year for private companies.
10) Process
The crucial step in the development of solar energy demonstrations in Malmö was to focus on this area by forming the association in 2007.  Before this, there were already existing solar energy installations.  The Solar City Malmö helped to brand the work and create a much larger interest.

Results

The results so far are a number of large solar energy installations.  There are at least five larger solar thermal installations that partly are connected to the district heating system. There are also at least six larger photovoltaic installations, from smaller demonstrations to large-scale power production.

Solar energy has been marketed by a number of seminars, solar energy expos and participation in conferences.  Also, Solar City Malmö is receiving an increasing number of study visits each year.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

A success factor that has been significantly critical is the will of the municipality to work in the field of solar energy, and the co-operation with other key actors in the region. Governmental support for photovoltaics has also been very advantageous towards the project, but there are other solutions like feed in tariffs that have been used successfully in other countries.