immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Photovoltaikausbau

  • Solar energy as the driving force behind the power supply

    Solar energy as the driving force behind the power supply

    Swissolar sees potential for solar installations to account for 80% of the country’s electricity expansion by 2035. According to the first Solar Monitor Switzerland, which has now been published, the annual solar power yield could reach more than 28 terawatt hours. According to a press release, the recently published Solar Monitor Switzerland provides the first up-to-date facts and figures on the future development of the solar market. It includes forecasts for the expansion of photovoltaics up to the year 2035.

    For the current year, solar energy is contributing 11% to electricity generation and is therefore “well on the way to becoming the second mainstay of Switzerland’s electricity supply alongside hydropower”. The prerequisite is “significantly improved implementation provisions”, it says. The new Electricity Act has led to uncertainty, which will have a dampening effect on market growth over the next two years. After that, new growth spurts can be expected.

    For the first time, the Solar Monitor also provides an overview of industry turnover and the skilled labor situation. According to the report, the industry is expected to generate 3.7 billion Swiss francs in the current year and could reach 6 billion in ten years’ time. As part of a survey, Swissolar collected figures on the personnel situation. There are currently 11,000 full-time equivalents working in the solar industry. In order to achieve the expansion targets set out in the Electricity Act, 19,000 full-time employees are required.

    In future, an updated version of the Solar Monitor will be published annually.

  • Photovoltaic expansion is in its infancy

    Photovoltaic expansion is in its infancy

    Photovoltaics should be next to the hydroelectric power to buttress a climate-friendly energy future, the association of independent power producers (writes Vese ) in a release . The specialist group of the Swiss Association for Solar Energy has developed an online map on which the development status of photovoltaics in the individual communities, districts or cantons is shown. The interactive map also optionally shows the nationwide status or the expansion of individual power plants.

    VESE explains that the map shows a very heterogeneous picture of the state of photovoltaics. Depending on the canton, the installed capacity per inhabitant is up to five times higher or lower. The cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Jura have the highest level of development with more than 600 watts of power per inhabitant. In contrast, in the canton of Zurich, only 134 watts of power per inhabitant have been installed so far.

    This could not be due to a lack of space, explains VESE in the press release. Even the front-runner Appenzell Innerrhoden is only using its potential to an "infinitesimally small 5.2 percent". For VESE project manager Diego Fischer, the photovoltaic policy is more responsible. It is "a big patchwork in which the hot potato is pushed back and forth between the federal government, the cantons, the municipalities, the electricity companies and the investors, and in the end everyone is wondering why things are not moving faster".

    In order to promote the expansion of photovoltaics, the cantons and municipalities have to make better use of the instruments available to them, says Fischer. Specifically, the VESE project manager addresses the remuneration of solar power fed in and subsidies to supplement one-off payments. Fischer wants to increase the expansion of photovoltaics on the roofs of rental properties through building regulations.