Swiss Renewable Energy
Swissolar, the trade association representing the Swiss solar industry, announced that Switzerland is expected to add 1.5GW of new solar installed capacity in 2023, an increase of nearly 40% from 2022. If these expectations are realized, Switzerland's total installed capacity will be just over 6.2 GW, accounting for 10% of Switzerland's total electricity consumption in 2024.
This is an encouraging development for the Swiss renewable energy industry. As early as 2011, the Swiss government set a goal of using solar power to meet 10% of the country's energy needs by 2025. Swissolar is optimistic that this rapid development will continue.
Swissolar also said that the recent success of the Swiss solar industry is partly due to the New Energy Act. The bill was introduced in 2017 to reform the Swiss energy industry.
According to the bill, Switzerland aims to increase the annual production of domestic renewable energy from 4,400GWh in 2020 to 11,400GWh, and has launched a series of practical reform measures to achieve this goal, including replacing the feed-in electricity fee scheme with a "direct sale" The current cost-based feed-in tariff scheme, the "direct sale" feed-in tariff scheme, is designed to make new renewable energy power projects more economically viable.
This will increase demand for new solar projects in Switzerland. Energy trader Axpo announced in 2022 plans to add 1.2GW of new solar capacity in Switzerland by the decade's end. If Axpo completes the work, the company's installed solar capacity in Switzerland will grow sixfold, reflecting the solar industry's annual six-fold increase in installed capacity since the passage of the Energy Law until the end of 2023.
This comes after the European Commission issued a stern warning earlier this week that some European countries must "step up their efforts" to achieve the EU's climate change goals. Although Switzerland is not a member of the EU, the warning demonstrates the need for more clean energy investment in renewable energy markets across Europe.
