The company Helion, the Swiss industry association Swissolar and National Councilor Jürg Grossen have each developed roadmaps for the Swiss electricity system up to 2050. These scenarios are characterized by a rapid and strong expansion of photovoltaics (PV) to compensate for the phase-out of nuclear energy and to cover a large part of the increasing electricity demand. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of these Roadmaps and compare them with the “Business as usual” (“Weiter Wie Bisher”, WWB) scenario of the Energy Perspectives 2050+.

The electrification of the transport sector will have a substantial impact on the Swiss electricity system. Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) – the bidirectional interaction between electric vehicles and the grid – is one way of leveraging the battery capacity to provide flexibility for the electricity system. In this study, we make a first estimate of the potential impact of V2G on the Swiss electricity system. We hereby assume that V2G is used for balancing supply and demand on a system level.

Electricity generated from rooftop photovoltaics systems have the largest renewable potential in Switzerland and are expected to contribute substantially to the future Swiss electricity mix. However, so far, these systems are behind their expectations, which is why an update of PV policies is discussed. In this project, we investigate an alternative to the prevailing support scheme. What we call the “customer-oriented feed-in tariff” remunerates solar electricity injected to the grid with a percentage of the retail electricity price, the price electricity customers are paying for electricity consumption.