As Norway’s cumulative solar capacity moves closer to 1 GW, the country’s C&I market accounts for the majority of new installations while its residential market stalls.
Norway added 43 MW of solar between January and July this year, according to provisional figures published by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), taking the country’s cumulative solar capacity to 964 MW by the end of last month.
Hassan Gholami, a senior consultant on solar and storage at Multiconsult, told pv magazine that while the 43 MW total could rise by roughly 10-15% as NVE continues to register installations from the previous months, this year’s market growth remains the slowest recorded since 2021.
Solar systems between 100 kW and 1 MW in size, most often deployed on commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftops, make up around 60% of this year’s installations to date.
Gholami said the clearest success in Norway’s solar market currently is that the C&I segment continues to function without direct subsidies.
