Since the start of the year, residents of Winterthur have been able to sell their own solar power to their local community. To do so, they must register their solar installation with a local electricity community (LEG) run by Stadtwerk Winterthur. The municipal utility currently offers 155 such LEGs across the city, according to a statement from Winterthur City Council. This means that around seven in ten households in Winterthur have the opportunity to purchase solar power from their neighbourhood.
Of the 2,500 photovoltaic systems installed across the city, 535 are currently registered with the 155 existing LEGs. Anyone wishing to register their own system or purchase electricity from an LEG can do so via the leghub.ch platform. It is also possible to set up your own LEG via the platform.
The federal government is promoting the purchase of solar power from the neighbourhood by offering a discount on the grid usage component of the electricity price. The price of LEG solar power is therefore up to 15 per cent lower than the standard electricity price. In the press release, Stefan Fritschi, Head of Winterthur’s Department of Technical Services, highlights a further advantage of electricity communities: “LEGs also enable tenants and homeowners without their own system to access locally produced solar power”.