It has lot to do with geographic latitude and weather patterns. The amount of electric output per amount solar installed strongly affects the profitability of solar installation (if you don't count of government subsidies).
replyYou get the following output on average each year
Denmark 1000 kWh/kWp
South Germany 1200 kWh/kWp
South Spain 1700 kWh/kWp
Egypt up to 2000 kWh/kWp
And summer isn't when you need the power anyway, so its very inefficient since northern winters has barely any sunlight at all, its close to 0 from solar power then. In warmer countries you want power in the summer for AC during the day, so there it matches usage, but in northern countries solar isn't very useful at all.
reply> but the Nordics aren't worse off than Alaska or Canada in that regard
replyNordics are much further north than Canada, most Canadians live further south than Paris and Paris is a lot further south than even Denmark that is much further south than Finland.