Abstract
Swiss Energy Law (EnG) does not contain specific targets for expansion of consumer (co-)ownership of RES, but it does contain several provisions that encourage and support such (co-)ownership schemes. One of them is an explicit authorization of self-consumption, which states that producers can consume self-generated electricity entirely or partially at the place of generation. Furthermore, the new version of the Federal Energy Law (2016) that was enacted in the beginning of 2018 allows the formation of self-consumption communities. In the future, more institutional investors like pension funds might become active in financing RE infrastructure, due to the new legislation that creates a separate asset class for infrastructure investment. At the time of writing, one chamber of the parliament and the commission of the second chamber have approved this proposal, which makes the legislation likely to pass. Direct ownership of a RE facility is the most widespread form consumer (co-) ownership despite the disadvantage of necessitating the available infrastructure, e.g., an appropriate rooftop for a solar PV installation. Cooperatives are an established vehicle for consumer (co-)ownership both at the national and regional levels. Since 1990, more than a hundred new RE-cooperatives have been founded, which are mainly active in the production of electricity from solar photovoltaics and heat from wood-chips. In 2016, around 30 per cent of the energy cooperatives active in electricity generation were applying self-consumption schemes. In recent years, consumer (co-)ownership provided new opportunities for joint projects of different partners. For example, an installer, often a non-for-profit start-up, develops a renewable energy project and partners with the utility to sell the project’s shares to the utility’s clients. The utility, in turn, delivers the produced ‘green’ electricity to their clients through their grid and manages the billing.
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- 1.
As of 1 January 2018, the exchange rate of Swiss franc to EUR was 0.8541. http://www.finanzen.ch/waehrungsrechner/schweizer-franken-euro.
- 2.
A recent survey has indicated that 20% of Swiss respondents would ‘absolutely’ participate in such local electricity trading and sharing marketplace, while another 60% would ‘probably consider’ that option (Reuter and Loocke 2017).
- 3.
It is currently an object of political debate, whether the grid operators can reject the involvement of the independent providers and, thus, to monopolize the measurement services. The new Energy Directive stipulates that 80% of measuring devices in the grid should be replaced by smart meters by the end of 2027 (SFOE 2017d).
- 4.
Putting energy generation on equal footing with other national interests like nature and landscape protection will provide guidance to the ‘weighting of interests’ procedure performed by courts, which need to decide on the ecological and societal desirability of the proposed project. This change may be especially important for wind power projects that often take more than a decade in Switzerland to be approved and built (Wüstenhagen et al. 2017).
- 5.
Geothermal power will be supported with either a federal guarantee (Geothermie-Garantie) or an exploration subsidy (Erkungundsbeitrag), aimed at reducing the upfront risks of site exploration (SFOE 2017d). EIV will be used to support most of small-scale installations in biomass. Bioenergy installations will only be eligible for EIV (up to 20% of reference investment cost), while the bioenergy plants of regional importance may apply for either EIV or KEV.
- 6.
Cooperatives have a long-standing tradition in Switzerland in a variety of economic sectors such as food retail, banking, insurances, dairy, and water supply (Purtschert 2005). Neither are cooperatives new to the energy sector. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, several hundred of cooperatives emerged (mainly in rural areas) to build and manage the local distribution grids (Gugerli 1996). From estimated 1500 original energy cooperatives (Klemisch and Vogt 2012), roughly 150 are still active today with a few also engaging in the production of electricity from renewable sources (Schmid and Seidl 2018).
- 7.
Typically, these new cooperatives invest in a photovoltaics installation on a large rooftop of a school or a municipal building (ibid.). The produced electricity and the certificates of origin can be subsequently sold to the grid operator, to the cooperative members for self-consumption, or to other individual actors.
- 8.
Under Swiss law associations do not require certification or registration in the trade registry if the association does not conduct commercial operations nor is subject to an audit requirement. The audit is required when two of the following conditions are met in two consecutive years: total assets above EUR 8.5 million, turnover over EUR 17 million, and over 50 full-time jobs (Federal Council 1907, Swiss Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 61 and 65). This simplicity and flexibility make associations an attractive legal model for consumers interested in RES (co-)ownership; at the same time, the limited liability of their members, paired with low audit requirements, may restrict access to credit, making them reliant on equity capital.
- 9.
It should be noted that Swiss feed-in-tariff levels are rather generous in international comparison (RES Legal EU 2018). This might be a necessity given the differences in price levels and smaller size of the Swiss electricity market compared to other countries.
- 10.
Despite the high approval of energy cooperatives, the recent survey has shown that the Swiss respondents are generally not willing to volunteer their time for cooperatives (Reuter and Loocke 2017).
- 11.
The largest group of potential investors into community RES projects can be described as ‘urban wind energy enthusiasts’ (55.8% of all investors), who are predominantly renters (56.4%) with college education (46.4%) (Ebers and Hampl 2017). Yet, there was a significant segment of investors, who lived in the rural areas (28.9%) or were not welcoming to wind power near their residence (22.0%) (ibid.).
- 12.
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Ebers Broughel, A., Stauch, A., Schmid, B., Vuichard, P. (2019). Consumer (Co-)Ownership in Renewables in Switzerland. In: Lowitzsch, J. (eds) Energy Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93518-8_20
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