Welcome to RealSolar

Resilient and accessible power system with large shares of solar energy

The RealSolar project investigates how to manage the increase of photovoltaics (PV) in our energy system while ensuring resilient and affordable energy supply, and that all levels of society have access to the benefits from PV and can thereby contribute to the just green transition.

RealSolar creates new understanding, data and tools that are critical for managing the increase of Nordic solar PV in a sustainable and responsible way, and to increase energy security, social and economic resilience, and equitable access. We consider the technical, economic, and societal aspects of increasing PV, which requires collaboration between different fields: PV and PV systems, solar meteorology, power system simulation and energy market mechanisms, scenario modelling and energy policies, responsible business models, and sustainable energy in buildings and communities.

Project Challenges

Challenge 1: Increasing green electricity production while supporting resilience and energy security.

The green transition rests on clean electricity generation. Finland has already seen significant increase in wind power; and solar energy is expected to follow, since it has become competitive without subsidies already before the recent energy crisis following to the war in Ukraine. The temporal production profile of PV can complement wind power, particularly by combining different PV technologies and mounting options. RealSolar finds how to develop a sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy system with strongly increasing wind and solar energy, considering also the present supply challenges of European fuel and electricity markets.

Challenge 2: Steering actions from participation of citizens to national level policy making in the uptake of PV to create carbon-neutral society and resource-wise economy.

For an informed transition, new knowledge on the possibilities of PV solutions is required on different scales: how it can be best installed and operated at site or household level, how multiple sites and households interact on the distribution grid level, and how PV can be best integrated to the national energy system and the Nordic electricity market. RealSolar will provide this knowledge, which will be created jointly with a wide array of stakeholders.

Challenge 3: Achieving equal access to the benefits of green electricity.

To increase uptake of green electricity production understanding of the needs and opportunities of granting equal access to these possibilities across all levels of society is needed. For this, RealSolar will investigate both the household level consumption-demand side as well as the city planning- technology provider-supply side to shed light on opportunities and barriers of adopting PV systems. This will require active participation of various stakeholders needed in the value creation activities in the whole business ecosystem comprising of the PV system utilization.