Switzerland plans radical solar subsidy cuts

Share

The Swiss government has plans to revise the Energy Regulation in the country. Among these revisions is also the threat to massively reduce FITs for renewable energy installations. The planned changes are "catastrophic" according to Swissolar.

The plan is to reduce the FITs for photovoltaic systems by 35 to 40% and lower the remuneration period to 15 years. For all other renewable technologies, the compensation rates are to be reviewed and increased in view of the reduced payment period, added Swissolar. The solar association believes that with its first estimate it would take 22 years thus for photovoltaic systems to be profitable with such proposed tariffs.

Moreover the government is also planning to completely axe the category "integrated systems," thereby reducing the tariffs for integrated photovoltaic systems by up to 50%. The so-called "cost covering feed-in tariff" for solar power, or KEV as known in Switzerland, is 19.9 to 39.4 Swiss Rappen per kWh (16.1 to 31.9 Euro cents per kWh).

Still Swissolar sees positive aspects as well in the government proposal. This way project progress reports will account for PV as well. And there will also be no more annual subsidy cut. A transition period is also expected.

Old rates will apply for all PV systems that are operational before the implementation of the new FITs. Also PV systems that are connected later, but already have assurance for FITs, will receive the higher subsidies.

The adoption of the solar subsidies is planned for January 1, 2014. The new energy bill will only apply from May 1 when there will be referendum. Currently the consultation process is ongoing and will carry on until mid-September.

The solar association added, "Swissolar will make use of this period to make it clear to the authorities that excessive tariff reductions in the solar sector will inflict massive damage."

Translated by Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Solid-state batteries enter pilot production, costs expected to drastically drop

01 November 2024 The latest findings from Taipei-based intelligence provider TrendForce show that all-solid-state battery production volumes could have GWh levels by 2...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.