Switzerland

Ambitious targets have been set for the expansion of new renewable energies: 35 TWh of electricity should be generated from new renewable sources by 2035, around 60% of today’s electricity consumption, which will continue to rise in the coming years due to increasing electrification. No specific target has been set for PV, but it’s likely that PV will account for around 80% of this increase, in other words, 28 TWh. Thus, solar power generation in Switzerland should increase fourfold in the next ten years. In 2024, solar electricity accounted already for about 11 per cent (6.2 TWh) of total electricity consumption (Source: Swissolar).

A number of changes come into force in energy legislation. For example, the distribution grid could previously not be used for self-consumption of self-produced electricity. The new rule is that at the low-voltage level (under 1 kV), the power lines and the local electrical infrastructure at the grid connection point may be used.

Grid operators must also allow so-called ‘virtual self-consumption communities’. To this end, the grid operator’s existing smart metering systems are available as a virtual metering point for the operator and for the self-consumption community, enabling them to bill themselves for their own consumption.

As a new instrument, a variable market price is being introduced that also applies to certain PV installations.

Further changes include higher bonuses for a one-time payment for PV systems on facades, as well as incentives for the installation of large systems on roofs. PV systems installed on uncovered car parks will also benefit from special funding.

More details are available in a factsheet from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. See also: Legislation governing energy.

The chart below provides an up-to-date (15.03.2025) overview of the number of projects and the financial commitment, broken down into different subject areas (source: https://pv.energyresearch.ch). 97 research and demonstration projects are in progress, thereof 30.2% in the context of European co-operation in terms of funding. More than half of the effort goes into the area of solar cell research, with a significant increase in cell research projects in the area of tandem technologies

With a relatively small budget, the Photovoltaics Programme of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) aims to maintain expertise in the long term and provide subsidiary support where gaps exist. It also ensures participation in PVPS. From 2025, the SFOE will no longer be able to support any new pilot and demonstration projects, though this does not apply exclusively to PV.

With 711 Watts of installed capacity per capita, Switzerland was ranked worldwide in 10th place in 2023.  Swissolar expects the capacity growth in Switzerland to slow somewhat in 2025 and 2026 due to the temporary uncertainties that have arisen around the new Electricity Act.

About half of the installed capacity is accounted for by residential and commercial areas respectively. Facade-mounted PV systems are still a small but fast-growing segment. Alpine PV plants, which are promoted with the ‘Solar Express’ subsidy with the aim of increasing winter electricity generation, face technical and economic challenges as well as questions of acceptance, so that only a few plants will be realised by the end of 2025. The question of whether there should be a follow-up regulation is under discussion.

Industry players in Switzerland are grouped along a large portion of the  photovoltaic value chain, for an overview, see: https://pv.energyresearch.ch/actors (installers are not listed there). According to Swissolar, the solar industry’s total revenue in 2023 was around 3.3 billion Swiss francs, with about 44% being labour costs Under a scenario of 28 TWh of solar power by 2035, its total revenue would grow to over 6 billion Swiss francs in 2035.