Lithuania is pioneering a scheme to allow city-dwellers who do not own the roof over their apartment blocks to buy solar panels located in special rural parks for their cheaper energy needs.
About a dozen such parks have opened in the past year, some as much as 50 km (30 miles) from the homes that they supply with solar energy.
"You invest upfront, but then for the next 20-25 years you save on electricity costs. So, with this zero-interest rate environment, it's a small but good investment," Vytautas Plunksnis, who bought a 1.5 kw panel located at one solar park.
The park is situated next to an old decommissioned gas power plant which was blanketed in snow this week.
"It's winter, there's very little sun, so I cannot say that I have much savings, but I understand that most of my electricity will be generated in summertime," Plunksnis said.
The park will produce electricity for 25 years and Plunksnis will have to pay fees for maintenance such as cleaning the panels and to the national grid to bring electricity to his house.
Lithuania aims to have a third of the country receiving electricity from people's own solar panels by 2030, or about 420,000 households. At the start of this year, only 8,500 households did.
About 1,500 city-dwellers installed the panels in 2020, with purchases buoyed by generous European Union subsidies and a promise of up to 70% smaller electricity bills.
(Reporting By Andrius Sytas; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
