The Swedish government have been active in the field of renewable energy before many of their EU counterparts and they initiated a research programme on the subject in 1975. This initial research resulted in the government releasing funds for research and development into different methods of solar heating which has escalated through the years. The Swedish Government recently announced that it is confident that it can reach the renewable energy targets which have been set by the EU.

The Swedish Council for Building Research has been studying the installation of solar panels into new buildings as well as the installation of the panels into existing buildings and it has been decided that a number of tax incentives will be offered to developers of new homes along with a grant of 25% of the costs involved for installation to an existing building.

With regard to existing buildings it is estmated that an average size home will take approximatelt 13 years to recoup the investment involved. It should be noted that any installations have to be carried out by a solar installation company that is approved by the Swedish government and that is based on an installation cost of 21,000 Euros.

Sweden uses the same kind of quota system for its feed-in tariff as Italy and Poland but they are actively trying to improve what is on offer and are especially interested in replicating the scheme that is being introduced to the UK in 2010.

An extensive advertising promotion has recently been launched by the Sweedish Government to encourage its residents to install solar electricity systems and they believe that the two main reasons that its people will embrace the technology further is because of the issue of the carbon footprint and the large financial savings that will be made due to the ever rising electricity and fuel prices.