Politics and administration
Patchwork slows down solar expansion
Whether it is worth putting a solar system on your roof in Switzerland depends very much on the local remuneration for solar power and the price of electricity – this is something shown by a joint study of ETH Zurich and the University of Bern. And that is slowing down solar expansion.
To reach its climate goals, Switzerland will have to massively increase the production of electricity with solar energy. Photovoltaic systems on single and multi-family houses play a decisive role in the process as they account for 42 percent of the potential on all house roofs. But whether it is financially worth your while to invest in a system depends very much on where you live and the local power grid operator. Just how much that is has been shown for the first time in a survey by researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Bern. The study was carried out as part of the project “Sweet Edge” and was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. To accelerate solar expansion, the authors of the study recommend harmonizing both regulations and remuneration in Switzerland. One idea would be to make solar systems tax-free in all cantons, for example. Furthermore, investments in buildings that are less than five years old should be tax deductible. “Switzerland really is a kind of patchwork in this respect. It is neither fair nor comprehensible that the profitability of solar systems should vary so much from one region to the next,” says Isabelle Schmid-Stadelmann, Professor of Comparative Politics at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern and co-author of the study.