For decades, the Arctic has been dismissed as a solar dead zone. Long winters, heavy snow loads, and extreme cold seemed to rule out photovoltaics as a serious energy option for communities above the 60th parallel. A new report from the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (Task 13) challenges that assumption, arguing that solar PV is not just viable in the Arctic, but increasingly essential to the region’s energy security.
The 77-page report, titled “Photovoltaics and Energy Security in the Greater Arctic Region“ and authored by researchers across the US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, arrives at a moment when Arctic PV capacity is growing at rates of 46 to 145% per year in some regions. Total installed capacity above 60°N now stands at roughly 1,400 MWp as of 2023 — still a tiny fraction of global capacity, but the trajectory is unmistakable.
Seasonality issues
First and foremost, when planning a PV project at higher latitudes, the starting point must be considering seasonality: near the summer solstice in June, high-latitude regions receive large amounts of solar radiation. In contrast, near the winter solstice in December high-latitude regions receive little solar radiation (or not at all above the Arctic Circle at 66.56°N).
Bridging the gap between the intensity of summer and the scarcity of winter is the defining integration challenge for Arctic PV systems, and one that is addressed at length throughout the report.
The case for Arctic solar
The report’s central argument rests on a counterintuitive insight: cold is not the enemy of solar panels. It’s often an advantage.
Silicon PV cells produce more power at lower temperatures because the semiconductor bandgap widens, boosting voltage. The report cites data from a south-facing system in Alaska, where the median module temperature during daylight hours was just 15°C, which is far below the 25°C standard test condition at which panels are rated. In cold climates, modules may also degrade more slowly, with a median performance loss rate of just -0.37%/year measured across 16 systems above 59°N, compared to -0.75%/year for systems across the continental United States.
Snow, meanwhile, is a double-edged factor. It can block panels and stress racking systems, but it also dramatically raises ground albedo, potentially boosting the rear-side gain of bifacial modules to levels unseen in lower latitudes. The report notes that bifacial gain increases with latitude precisely because of long-lasting snow cover, increased diffuse light, and low solar elevation angles. The recommendation is clear: bifacial modules should be the default technology choice for Arctic deployments.
Vertical arrays as the key for high-latitude
One of the report’s more striking practical findings concerns system orientation. East-west facing vertical bifacial arrays show particular promise above 60°N. Their near-90° tilt sheds snow naturally, avoiding the extended zero-production periods that plague tilted fixed-tilt systems in winter. They also produce power earlier and later in the day, better matching electricity demand curves and reducing the “cannibalization effect” that depresses midday wholesale prices.
Field data from a vertically-mounted agrivoltaic system in Sweden (59.55°N) illustrates the point. In December 2023, the vertical system outperformed its south-facing fixed-tilt neighbor on 28 out of 31 days, averaging 6.1 kWh/kW/month versus just 1.32 kWh/kW for the tilted array. On 14 of those days, the tilted system produced nothing at all due to snow coverage.
Hidden risks within foundations
However, there is one section of the report that deserves special attention from developers: the discussion of frost heave and permafrost. Two detailed case studies — a 699 kW system in Luleå, Sweden, and a 563 kW array in Fairbanks, Alaska — document costly structural failures caused by ground freezing that installers failed to adequately anticipate.
In Luleå, perforated C-profile piles allowed the clay substrate to grip the racking, causing visible deformation within the first winter. The entire racking system had to be replaced with deeper, non-perforated piles. In Fairbanks, helical piles in a historically filled slough zone were jacked out of the ground and sank, breaking modules and requiring partial disassembly and reinstallation at 5.5 m depth.
The lesson from both cases: standard geotechnical surveys designed for construction and road work are not adequate for PV racking in frost-prone soils. Developers must commission surveys with PV-specific methodology, and should factor in the less obvious effect of the array itself.
In permafrost regions, the problem compounds further. Monitoring data from an array in Kotzebue, Alaska, shows that snow drifts accumulating behind solar rows are warming the permafrost, potentially destabilizing foundations over time. According to the report, solar arrays in these environments can act as snow fences, and the long-term structural consequences remain poorly understood.
The data scarcity problem
For developers seeking to bankroll Arctic projects, the report identifies a persistent obstacle: the almost total absence of high-quality irradiance data above 60°N. Geostationary satellites degrade in accuracy beyond 65° latitude. Polar-orbiting satellites struggle to distinguish snow from cloud cover. Ground-based measurement networks are sparse, and those that exist face unique maintenance challenges, such as rime ice forming on radiometer domes, malfunctioning tracker mechanisms, and limited site access in winter.
As a result, energy yield assessments for Arctic projects carry substantially higher uncertainty than those at lower latitudes, which leads to complicated financing. The authors call for investment in heated, ventilated measurement instruments, rigorous maintenance protocols, and expanded ground-station networks across high-latitude regions.
The road ahead
The country-level data in the report paints a picture of a region moving fast despite the obstacles. Norway’s PV capacity above 60°N reached 173 MW in 2023, growing at 145% annually, with the country targeting 8 TWh of solar generation by 2030. Finland crossed 1 GW nationally and projects up to 9.1 GW by 2030. Arctic Sweden’s installed base hit 350 MW with a five-year mean growth rate of 58%/year, and utility-scale ground-mounted parks are now entering the permitting pipeline at gigawatt scale.
In North America, the story is different but equally dynamic. Alaska’s total PV capacity reached roughly 30 MW at end-2023, with the largest single facility at 8.5 MW and a 45 MW project announced for the Railbelt grid. More than 150 isolated diesel-dependent rural microgrids are receiving funding for solar-plus-storage systems, with some already capable of 100% renewable operation during favorable conditions.
The overarching message of this report is that the Arctic solar market is real, it is growing, and it has specific technical requirements that the global PV industry has not yet fully addressed. Bifacial vertical arrays, PV-specific geotechnical standards, Arctic-grade snow loss modeling, and expanded irradiance datasets are not nice-to-haves, but rather the foundations on which a credible high-latitude solar industry must be built.
Author: Ignacio Landivar
To access the full “Photovoltaics and Energy Security in the Greater Arctic Region,” you can download it here.
IEA PVPS Task 13 focuses on international collaboration to improve the reliability of photovoltaic systems and subsystems. This is achieved by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information about their technical performance and durability. This creates a basis for their technical evaluation and develops practical recommendations to increase their electrical and economic efficiency in various climate regions.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.