Switzerland begins consultations on incentives to promote renewables

Switzerland's Federal Council on Wednesday initiated consultations on a package of financial incentives meant to drive the expansion of renewable energy in the country.

The measures, to be introduced as part of legislative changes, concern solar, wind, geothermal, biogas and hydropower.

Under the planned amendments, investment subsidies will be provided for wind power and biogas plants running on agricultural biomass to cover up to 60% of the investment costs. Such subsidies will be granted also to geothermal plants.

The one-time remuneration for photovoltaic (PV) plants without self-consumption of between 2 kW and 150 kW is fixed at CHF 450 (USD 486.55/EUR 438.29) per kW while facilities of over 150 kW will get a one-time payment that will be determined in auctions based on the pay-as-bid model. Solar plants should also receive a winter bonus.

Additionally, the lower capacity threshold that entitles hydropower plants to an investment subsidy will be reduced to 1 MW from previously 10 MW.

The package includes further measures that should support the installation of bigger rooftop solar systems and regulate the investment subsidies for the expansion of hydropower plants.

The introduction of these instruments follows the decision of the Swiss parliament from last October to replace the system of feed-in tariffs that expires at the end of 2022 with investment subsidies. All these new incentives will be available until 2030.

(CHF 1 = USD 1.081/EUR 0.974)

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