In 2019, solar power systems with a capacity of almost 332 megawatts (MW) were newly installed in Switzerland. This was reported by the industry association Swissolar in a press release. The 2019 solar energy market survey shows that demand has risen by 20 percent compared to 2018. At that time a capacity of 269 MW was newly installed.
In total, photovoltaic systems with a capacity of almost 2.5 gigawatts (GW) have thus been installed on roofs and open spaces. The share of photovoltaic systems in total energy consumption rose accordingly from 3.4 to 3.8 percent. However, according to Swissolar, the addition in 2019 is still below the highest value to date in 2015, at almost 340 MW.
Installations above 1 MW with particularly strong growth
An increase compared to the previous year could be observed in almost all size categories. With a factor of 9, the larger plants with a capacity of more than 1 MW increased particularly. The average system size was 22.5 kilowatts (kW) compared to 19.4 kW in 2018.
Broken down by type of plant, almost all market segments grew. The growth was particularly high for systems on industrial and commercial buildings, with 39 percent in terms of output: "Obviously, more and more owners of such companies are recognizing the possibility of generating part of their electricity requirements with solar systems on their own roofs," says Swissolar.
The average battery storage size also increased
According to the market survey, the number of battery storage units sold was slightly lower than in the previous year, but on the other hand the newly installed storage capacity increased by almost 40%. The average storage size was 13.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) compared with 9.1 (kWh) in the previous year. Around 15 % of newly installed PV systems on detached houses are combined with a battery storage system.
According to Swissolar, however, the annual increase in photovoltaics in Switzerland must increase by a factor of 4 to 5 in order to achieve the Paris climate protection targets and to compensate for the phase-out of nuclear energy decided in the Energy Strategy 2050. To achieve this, solar power capacity must be expanded to 50 GW by 2050. (hcn)
