Coordinating the sun: governance and system efficiency in Sweden’s solar expansion

Abstract

Energy efficiency is usually framed as a demand-side concern, yet the pace of renewable expansion increasingly depends on how efficiently supply-side systems integrate new capacity. This paper reframes efficiency as a governance question, examining how policy design, institutional coordination, and planning practices shape system-level efficiency outcomes during the rapid expansion of large-scale solar PV. Using Sweden as a critical case, the study combines qualitative analysis of policy and strategy documents with interviews across public authorities, grid operators, developers, industry representatives, and civil society. Rather than evaluating the technical performance of solar PV, it traces the observable consequences of governance arrangements: grid congestion, curtailment, investment risk, and a growing reliance on compensatory measures such as storage integration and conditional grid connections. The findings show that rapid deployment, in the absence of anticipatory coordination, produces reactive governance responses that sustain expansion but at the cost of rising transaction costs, procedural complexity, and uncertainty. These challenges stem not from technological limitations but from temporal and institutional misalignment between infrastructure planning, spatial regulation, and market development. Sweden’s experience suggests that renewable-led transitions require more than accelerated deployment: system efficiency depends on aligning governance processes with the pace of technological change, with implications for how other national contexts design their own governance frameworks.