The average cost of turnkey solar power plants in Switzerland decreased by a whopping 40% between 2011 and 2012, a new report indicate. 94 installers and 402 photovoltaic solar power plant operators were interviewed for this report.
Solar panels on Swiss home.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Feed-in tariffs were actually reduced by 8% early this year in Switzerland. Last year, they were reduced three times. The first of these reductions was an 8% one in the beginning of the year, followed by a 10% cut in March, then a 15% cut in October.
According to PV-Magazine, “these measures have helped lower the installation prices of photovoltaic plants in Switzerland, but they still have not fallen to parity with German prices.”
The average price per watt of installed PV solar plants in 2012 was 2.947 Swiss Francs (€2.42 or $3.16), which represents a 41% decrease in comparison to 2001’s price of 4.984 Swiss Francs (€4.08 or $5.34) per watt.
The table below shows Switzerland’s FiTs for 2013. These FiTs are guaranteed for 25 years.
| Rooftop | BIPV | Ground-mounted | |||
| Size | Incentive | Size | Incentive | Size | Incentive |
| < 10kW | CHF0.332/kWh | <10kW | CHF0.394/kWh | <10kW | CHF0.305/kWh |
| 10 – 30 kW | CHF0.270/kWh | 10 – 30 kW | CHF0.336/kWh | 10 – 30 kW | CHF0.248/kWh |
| 30 – 100 kW | CHF0.247/kWh | 30 – 100 kW | CHF0.305/kWh | 30 – 100 kW | CHF0.228/kWh |
| 100 kW – 1 MW | CHF0.231/kWh | 100 kW – 1 MW | CHF0.290/kWh | 100 kW – 1 MW | CHF0.213/kWh |
| > 1 MW | CHF0.216/kWh | > 1 MW | CHF0.266/kWh | > 1 MW | CHF0.199/kWh |
50% of the solar panels installed in Switzerland come from Germany, Photovoltaikzentrum reports, while 30% of them are imported from the Far East.
Turnkey solar power systems are important because they can reduce labour requirements due to ease of installation. The installation cost of solar power plants can exceed half the entire installed cost of the plant.
An ideal turnkey solar power system would work just by plugging it in. This would be possible if all households were built with standard generator sockets (that have automatic transfer switches in them which will disconnect the grid automatically) that enable people to simply plug in their solar panel system’s inverter and completely avoid having to hire an electrician. Replacement of the system could be seamless as well.
Manufacturers may even go as far as to integrate battery banks into inverter modules so you can just plug in solar panels, then plug the modules into the generator socket and be finished in no time!
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