Sweden says it wants to stop burning fossil fuels to make electricity by the year 2040 and it has announced a government subsidy that will cover 60% of the cost of installing a residential energy storage system up to a maximum of 50,000 kroner or $5,600. The grant applies to the battery, wiring, control systems, smart energy hub, and installation work for homes with rooftop solar systems, according to renewableenergyworld.com.

Andreas Gustafsson, program manager within the Research and Innovation Department of the Swedish Energy Agency, told Renewable Energy World: “The scheme represents a complementary support system to the existing scheme supporting solar PV generation in Sweden. It’s one step, but an important step towards establishing a smart, distributed grid based around clean, renewable energy.”

“It’s expected that in supporting the installation of batteries, we’ll enable two outcomes — one to enable better use of solar PV generation systems,” Gustafsson said. “The second is to help establish smarter, more flexible grids that can contribute to stabilize the grid against fluctuations in frequency and voltage.”

He added that, “in this context, it’s important to have systems for storing energy, rather than simply pumping excess electricity into the grid, only to buy it back at a later date when you have a demand.”

Gustafsson expects that the financial assistance will be attractive to so-called prosumers, given the costs of residential storage systems.

“Of course batteries remain quite expensive,” he said. “But with newer batteries entering the market, and forecasts for future reductions in cost, this level of support, 50,000 kroner, seems reasonable.”

Swedish solar market is a rapidly expanding one, in 2015 growing about 60%, while now it has an installed capacity of about 128 MW.