What fundamental problem are you addressing?
In Switzerland, far too few roofs are equipped with solar systems - and at the same time, expansion is progressing too slowly. "The entire surface area of Switzerland receives around 200 times more solar radiation than the energy consumed in the country as a whole. The production potential on roofs and façades is high: it could cover around half of Switzerland's total electricity consumption. This potential is still hardly used." (Swiss Federal Office of Energy)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC emphasizes the enormous potential of solar energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of climate change. In recent years, the cost of photovoltaics has fallen exponentially, making it the cheapest clean energy source.
Meanwhile, building a solar system is an attractive investment - with low risk and quick payback. However, the potential is too often underutilized, especially in buildings with shared ownership such as apartment buildings and industrial buildings with several companies.
Our systemic problem hypotheses assume that the low utilization of solar energy, especially in buildings with multiple owners, is less a technical problem than a structural one. Shared ownership, legal uncertainties and a lack of incentives make community investment in solar systems difficult.
Which habits would you like to change or mainstream through which approach?
Our mainstreaming approach aims to establish solar sharing models as a standardized and widely applicable solution - in other words, to integrate solar energy into the everyday planning, management and financing of multi-party buildings. In this way, we want to turn community solar projects from the exception into the rule.
What would you like to work on during the booster?
As part of the Booster, we would like to realize a specific lighthouse project: Our aim is to find a suitable community of owners - for example in an apartment building - provide them with comprehensive advice and accompany them step by step through to the actual installation of a shared solar system. This pilot project is intended to serve as a practical example in order to better understand the key challenges, success factors and necessary framework conditions.
At the same time, we want to systematically evaluate the mainstreaming potential and scalability of the solar sharing approach. The aim is to analyze which structural hurdles exist, which actors need to be involved in the process and under which conditions the model can be applied on a broad scale.
Based on these findings, we want to develop a standardized, replicable model that is easily transferable both technically and organizationally. This model should later be offered as a marketable product or service - with the aim of turning solar sharing from a niche topic into the norm in Switzerland.