Lessons in community owned PV from swedish multi-family housing cooperatives

With increasing population shifts to urban areas and demands for post-war energy efficient renovationsacross Europe, solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment in multi-family housing will play an increasingly important roletowards meeting renewable energy, climate, and sustainability goals. This paper describes the stories of threeSwedish residential cooperatives who have installed large-scale PV systems across multiple buildings on their estates.In all cases, reduced operating costs were the original primary motivator; however unforeseen cost increases, changesin policy, and excess supply in the electricity market have made economic success less likely than originallyexpected. Regardless, the owners consider their projects a success due in part to short term social and long-termenvironmental benefits, which were originally less important and difficult to quantify. We can conclude thatcommunity owned PV offers more than just economic benefits, and Sweden’s unique ownership and managementstructure of residential cooperatives can offer insights towards increased deployment in other nations in Europe.QC 20161228