Switzerland: Solar power share to break the 10 percent mark in 2024
The photovoltaic capacity installed in Switzerland at the end of 2023 was over 6,200 MW. This will enable solar power production of around 6 TWh for 2024. This means that the threshold of 10% of Switzerland's total annual electricity consumption will be reached in the coming year. In 2011, Swissolar had set this share as a target for 2025.
The turn of the year is the time of energy balances. The Swiss association Swissolar is already looking ahead to 2024 and forecasts a solar power share of at least 10 percent.
Swissolar estimates the new PV installations in 2023 at 1,500 MW. This corresponds to a market growth of almost 40% compared to the previous year. This means that the strong market growth of recent years will continue in 2023. Compared to 2017, the year before the revised Energy Act came into force, annual growth has increased more than sixfold. This also shows that, despite some difficulties, it has so far been possible to recruit the necessary skilled workers in the solar industry.
Subsidies for large-scale plants and high electricity prices lead to solar power boom in Switzerland
The estimation is based on the number of registrations at the Pronovo funding agency as well as feedback from the market. The analysis shows that the markets for both smaller and larger plants have grown strongly. In the case of large-scale installations, the introduction of the new subsidy for plants without self-consumption (the so-called high one-off remuneration) in particular provided an additional boost. This would have made it possible to implement projects such as the photovoltaic system on the retaining wall in Teufen, which is optimised for winter electricity yield and supplies electricity for around 50 households. Since then, the renewable energy company Axpo has also been increasingly building PV systems at high altitudes for so-called winter electricity.
Another strong driver for the expansion was the high price of electricity, similar to the previous year. This particularly affects large consumers who buy their electricity on the free market. But also for tied customers, the median price for electricity increased by 28.5% from 2022 to 2023. (The median value is the central value in an ordered data series. This means that half of the electricity prices are above this value, and half are below it. The median is more meaningful than the average, especially in the case of strong outliers, which can be strongly influenced by individual extremes).
In addition, the growing use of electromobility and heat pumps is promoting the use of photovoltaics. Many Swiss want to generate the additional electricity demand themselves, the association concludes.
For 2024, Swissolar expects further market growth of at least 10%. This puts Switzerland on track to achieve the required annual expansion of over 2,000 MW, which is to be achieved from 2027. This is necessary for solar power to achieve its contribution to the target of 35 TWh of electricity from new renewable energies according to the blanket decree.
In 2022, the share of solar power in Switzerland was 6.76 percent, according to Swissolar. The detailed solar energy statistics for Switzerland are published on the website of the industry association in the summer of the following year.
Source: Swissolar | © solarserver.de Solarthemen Media GmbH