Food retailer Axfood plans Sweden’s largest rooftop solar installation

Swedish food retail group Axfood AB (STO:AXFO) is taking steps to install what it says would be the largest rooftop solar power system in the country on top of a facility operated by its purchasing and logistics firm Dagab.

Under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA), Axfood will buy the entire output of an 8.9-MW solar plant, to be built atop Dagab’s highly automated logistics centre in Balsta to the north of Stockholm. More than 16,000 solar panels will be installed on a surface of about 80,000 square metres as part of this project, with completion scheduled for the autumn.

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Axfood noted that the investment is a collaboration between Dagab, the landlord Logicenters and the supplier Solkompaniet.

According to Nicholas Pettersson, managing director of Dagab, the firm’s logistics centre in Balsta will be fully operational in 2023.

The food retailer’s overall objective is to achieve net-zero emissions from the company’s own operations by 2030. Last year, it initiated cooperation with supplier Alight to also build a 40-MW ground-mounted solar park, the output of which will be enough to cover some 15% of the group’s total consumption.