diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ab3d2bf..1174b3f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [v1.1.0]
+
 ### Added
 
 - Added pre-commit configuration for linting and formatting [!6](https://github.com/dmidk/sunflow/pull/6), @khintz
@@ -15,7 +17,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Changed
 
 - Add .gitignore file and remove unnecessary files from the repository [!1](https://github.com/dmidk/sunflow/pull/1), @khintz
+- Optimize container image size using multi-stage build and removing build-time dependencies [#9](https://github.com/dmidk/sunflow/pull/9), @khintz
 
-## [1.0.0]
+## [v1.0.0]
 
 Initial release of Sunflow. The application performs real-time or historical short-term solar irradiance nowcasting using probabilistic advection (via [SolarSTEPS](https://github.com/EnergyWeatherAI/SolarSTEPS)) with satellite data from KNMI MSG-CPP or DWD SIS. It supports local file, API download, and S3 run modes, produces CF-compliant NetCDF4 forecast files, and can be run as a container via Podman/Docker.
diff --git a/ContainerFile b/ContainerFile
index b5d2b1d..2b56d6a 100644
--- a/ContainerFile
+++ b/ContainerFile
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-FROM python:3.12
+FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS builder
 
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
-# Install system dependencies including git and Python dev headers
+# Install build-time dependencies only in the builder stage.
 RUN apt-get update -y && \
-    apt-get install -y \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     build-essential \
     python3-dev \
     libgeos-dev \
@@ -18,27 +18,52 @@ RUN apt-get update -y && \
     curl && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# Set up container environment
 ENV USER_ID=1000
 ENV GROUP_ID=1000
 
-# Install uv for fast dependency resolution and installation
+# Install uv only in the builder stage.
 RUN curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
-
 ENV PATH="${PATH}:/root/.local/bin"
 
-# Create application directories
-RUN mkdir -p /data/nowcasts /data/satellite_data
 WORKDIR /project
 
-# Copy project files
 COPY pyproject.toml /project/
 COPY uv.lock /project/
 COPY sunflow/ /project/sunflow/
 COPY README.md /project/
 COPY config.yaml /project/
 
-# Install project dependencies
-RUN uv sync --frozen --no-dev
+RUN uv sync --frozen --no-dev && \
+    rm -rf /root/.cache/uv /root/.cache/pip
+
+FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm
+
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
+# Install only the runtime shared libraries needed by the wheels.
+RUN apt-get update -y && \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    ca-certificates \
+    libgomp1 \
+    libgeos-c1v5 \
+    libproj25 \
+    proj-data \
+    proj-bin \
+    libhdf5-103-1 \
+    libnetcdf19 && \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+ENV USER_ID=1000
+ENV GROUP_ID=1000
+ENV VIRTUAL_ENV=/project/.venv
+ENV PATH="${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin:${PATH}"
+
+WORKDIR /project
+
+COPY --from=builder /project/.venv /project/.venv
+COPY pyproject.toml /project/
+COPY sunflow/ /project/sunflow/
+COPY README.md /project/
+COPY config.yaml /project/
 
-ENTRYPOINT ["uv", "run", "python", "-m", "sunflow.main"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["/project/.venv/bin/python", "-m", "sunflow.main"]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 43f92c9..57f5e34 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "isodate>=0.7.2",
     "fsspec>=2023.1.0",
     "s3fs>=2023.1.0",
+    "PyYAML>=6.0.2",
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.12"
 readme = "README.md"
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 0f30a1f..6e93b87 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -1599,6 +1599,7 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "opencv-python-headless" },
     { name = "pvlib" },
     { name = "pysteps" },
+    { name = "pyyaml" },
     { name = "requests" },
     { name = "s3fs" },
     { name = "solarsteps" },
@@ -1622,6 +1623,7 @@ requires-dist = [
     { name = "opencv-python-headless", specifier = ">=4.5.0" },
     { name = "pvlib", specifier = ">=0.10.0" },
     { name = "pysteps", specifier = ">=1.7.0" },
+    { name = "pyyaml", specifier = ">=6.0.2" },
     { name = "requests", specifier = ">=2.31.0" },
     { name = "s3fs", specifier = ">=2023.1.0" },
     { name = "solarsteps", git = "https://github.com/dmidk/SolarSTEPS?rev=18012d7b11c56895e14abc39c3800f68a9a44ecb" },