Lithuania’s solar capacity surpasses 3 GW

<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lithuania added approximately 600 MW of solar last year, taking total capacity to 3,040 MW. Technical permits have been issued for an additional 4 GW of solar but with grid congestion becoming a primary constraint, future deployments will be increasingly dependent on integration with storage technologies.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/region/lithuania/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lithuania</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">’s solar capacity reached 3,040 MW by the end of 2025, according to a report from the International Energy Agency's Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (<a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/tag/iea-pvps/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">IEA-PVPS</a>).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to data available in IEA-PVPS’ </span><a href="https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IEA-PVPS-Country-Updates-2025.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Country Updates 2025</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the country’s cumulative solar capacity stood at approximately 2.4 GW by the end of last year, indicating around 600 MW were added last year.</span></p>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_337444" style="width: 600px;"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-337444" height="439" src="https://www.pv-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-30-at-10.57.18-600x439.png" tabindex="0" width="600" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Lithuania's cumulative solar capacity 2015-2025 <p><i>Image: IEA-PVPS Country Updates 2025</i></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additional figures from the report state that solar power plants in Lithuania generated 1.79 TWh of electricity in 2025, accounting for 14.2% of total national electricity consumption. This equates to 1,053 kW per capita, which places Lithuania among the best performing in this metric of all EU member states.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The report says the main driver in Lithuania’s solar market has been a consistent and forward-looking state policy implemented by the country’s Ministry of Energy. Market growth has been driven primarily by solar prosumers, of which there are around 170,000 in Lithuania that covered around 70% of total solar electricity production in 2025. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These prosumers have benefited from a net-metering scheme that originally set no capacity limits for households or companies. Commercial companies have now transitioned to a net-billing system but net-metering is still applied to households and non-profit entities, although all new solar producers are expected to operate under net-billing in the near future.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Households and small- to medium-sized enterprises have also benefitted from public investment support schemes, typically covering up to 30% of installation costs. Larger-scale solar has also been growing in Lithuania, with the country’s largest operational project to date standing at 100 MW. Among the largest projects under developments are two <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/08/14/nib-nord-lb-finance-182-mw-of-solar-in-lithuania/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">91 MW sites</a> belonging to Vilnius-based renewable energy company Green Genius.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While growth is expected to continue, with technical permits already issued for an additional 4 GW of solar, Juras Ulbikas, research director at the Applied Research Institute for Prospective Technologies and contributor to the IEA-PVPS report, told </span><b>pv magazine </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">he believes the market is reaching saturation due to a lack of grid capacity. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Solar and wind are already covering 68.1% of electricity demand,” Ulbikas explained. “This number already exceeds Lithuania’s strategy targets for electricity from renewable energy sources, which was aligned with grid development measures.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ulbikas shared that prosumers are also facing problems acquiring technical permits for solar installations. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It means that further solar market growth will be strongly dependent on other technologies which can complement solar generation without pressure on the local grid,” he said, before adding that he expects solar market growth to align with developments in the storage market in the next years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nearly 2 GW of battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities were awarded technical permits in 2025. Lithuania announced an <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/02/10/lithuania-launches-800-mwh-energy-storage-tender/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">800 MWh energy storage tender</a> in February 2025 which ended up procuring <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/08/27/lithuania-approves-1-7-gw-4-gwh-of-energy-storage/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">1.7 GW/4 GWh</a> of capacity following overwhelming interest.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ulbikas told <strong>pv magazine </strong>Lithuania already has support schemes for </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">both hybrid solar-plus-storage farms and standalone BESS. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Another measure coming through is issuing technical permits for large scale solar plants if it shares the same grid connection point with wind plants, as this mitigates the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation,” he also explained.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">IEA-PVPS’ report adds that the integration of thermal energy storage is also increasing, beginning with the deployment of heat storage systems using phase-change materials in combination with heat pumps, particularly in households.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lithuania’s National Energy Independence Strategy has set a target of 100% electricity from renewables by 2030. The strategy was adopted in 2024, ahead of the country’s synchronization to the continental European electricity network, along with its neighbours <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/03/04/estonia-deploys-105-mw-of-solar-in-2025/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Estonia</a> and <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/02/26/latvia-deploys-258-mw-of-pv-in-2025/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Latvia</a>, in February last year.</span></p>