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EDGE Biennial Conference will be held on 22 August 2023 in Bern
Download the full program
Final Agenda_EDGE biennial conference_22 August 2023_room number.pdf (191.7 KiB)
Download the logistic note
To reach its climate targets and secure its energy supply, Switzerland needs to speed up the deployment of renewable energy technologies. SWEET-EDGE’s objective is to integrate very high shares of decentralized renewable energy into the Swiss energy system. To that end, EDGE is organizing its first Biennial Conference in Bern: a public conference gathering different stakeholders from the industry, policy, associations and administrations.
***** REGISTRATIONS ARE OPEN *****
To participate in the event, please register (mandatory) via the following link:
>> Registration link (mandatory - places are limited, first come first served) <<
Date: 22 August 2023
Time: 9h15 to 16h15 followed by a networking aperitif
Location: Welle 7, Schanzenstrasse 5, 3008 Bern
Energy drinks event in Bern!
EDGE will hold two outreach events in Bern on the evenings of both 21 and 23 August 2023. These events are called "Energy Drinks": you come and have a drink at the bar while listening to four presentations per night on hot energy topics in Switzerland, followed by games, quiz and prices to win!
There will be one topic per night, as follows:
21 August 2023: Does Switzerland really need alpine PV?
Moderator: Nik Zielonka, Universität Genf (UNIGE)
Prof. Michael Lehning, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Lausanne (EPFL/WSL)
Prof. Jürg Rohrer, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW)
Prof. Isabelle Stadelmann, Universität Bern (UniBern)
Dr. Mak Dukan, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
23 August 2023: Can Switzerland become fully renewable by 2050?
Moderator: Prof. Christof Bucher, Berner Fachhochschule (BFH)
Dr. Marius Schwarz, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
Prof. Christof Bucher, Berner Fachhochschule (BFH)
Dr. Gracia Brückmann, Universität Bern (UniBern)
Dr. Serge Biollaz, Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
The events will be held at ONO Das Kulturlokal in Bern from 7.00 PM to 9.30 PM. This is a free event and no registration is required but we advise you to come early to secure your spot (6.30 PM).
Language: German
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Fifth newsletter is out!
New video on alpine photovoltaic
Several researchers present their latest work on Swiss alpine solar photovoltaic installations, also frequently called alpine PV.
In this video, we have interviewed our partners according to their area of expertise on alpine PV, as follows:
• Evelina Trutnevyte, Co-leader of the SWEET EDGE programme at the University of Geneva (UNIGE): Do we really need alpine PV in Switzerland?
• Michael Lehning, Co-leader of the SWEET EDGE programme at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL): What are the technical advantages of alpine PV? Is alpine PV really more efficient? What about the snow cover?
• Varun Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO at SUNWELL: What could an alpine PV project look like?
• Yael Frischholz, Doctoral Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL): How does Mutsee work? What research do you do?
• Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen, Professor of Political Science at the University of Bern (UNIBE): What is the current policy state? Are alpine PV installations acceptable to the general public?
• Mak Dukan, Post-doctoral student in the Climate Finance & Policy (CFP) research group of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich): What about financing alpine PV?
Find out more about the current state of alpine PV in Switzerland and let us know what you think in comments below!
Third in-person Consortium Meeting
Our third in-person EDGE Consortium Meeting will be held on 23 August 2023 at the University of Bern. This will be a great opportunity to exchange ideas and reflect on the past year as well as on discussions made during the first EDGE Biennial Conference of 22 August 2023. We all work together towards a fully renewable Switzerland!
Second Site Visit
EDGE will be very pleased to welcome SFOE members and international experts to Lausanne for its Second Evaluation Meeting on 16 June 2023. We are looking forward to present EDGE newest advancements and show progress made since the first Site Visit in August 2022, where very interesting points were raised and constructive feedback were taken into account. This will be a great opportunity to reflect on the past 2 years of the EDGE project!
EDGE White Paper shows extreme level of fragmentation of rooftop PV policy in Switzerland
This is the first EDGE White Paper on policy and market design for high shares of decentralized renewable energy, authored by Tobias Schmidt (ETH Zurich), Isabelle Stadelmann (University of Bern), and colleagues.
To reach its climate targets and secure its energy supply, Switzerland needs to multiply the annual deployment of renewable energy technologies, especially solar PV (as also shown in the SWEET EDGE inter-model comparison). The EDGE Policy White Paper quantifies the level of fragmentation of policy targeting PV on rooftops of households in Switzerland.
First, the White Paper analyzes the relevant policy designs on federal, cantonal and municipal levels, detecting a strong variety on both the cantonal and municipal level, as well as between distribution grid providers.
Second, it models the effect of this fragmentation on the profitability of PV installations on exemplary building types, finding extreme variance, even within cantons.
Finally, it proposes a strategy to reduce this policy fragmentation while increasing ambition in favor of a targeted harmonization of selected policy instruments to create stronger incentives for accelerated solar PV deployment and to reduce unnecessary barriers.
Access the full White Paper here
Access the Interview about the White Paper:
Our EDGE 1-year report has been published on Aramis
The EDGE consortium aims to become the point of reference in Switzerland for integrating very high shares of renewable generation, based on solid scientific work and science-practice collaboration taking the specific settings in cities, midlands and the Alps into consideration. The Aramis 1-year report highlights progress made. This report is available in 4 languages (English, German, French and Italian).
Watch our partner's illustrated video interview!
Discover the great work of Christof BUCHER, Professor of Photovoltaic Systems at the Photovoltaic Laboratory (PV Lab) of the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). His work mainly focuses on testing PV systems that cannot be tested by the private industry. -> Watch the full video in English here
This video is also available in -> German here
SWEET EDGE Third Newsletter is out!
First EDGE Evaluation Meeting, second in-person Consortium Meeting, multiple interviews, two peer reviewed publications... Find out what EDGE members worked on for the past few months! -> Read the full Newsletter here.
EDGE First Site Visit was held
EDGE Second in-person Consortium Meeting
Our second EDGE in-person Consortium Meeting was held on 31 August and 1 September 2022 at the University of Geneva. A total of 36 members were present, including our Advisory Board member Carlos Pereira (Club of Rome) and our Implementation Partner Ingo Herbst (Siemens). The meeting took place in Geneva at Biotech Campus. All partners presented their work and steps forward, in the research fields as well as on the pilot and demonstration projects. What a nice and fruitful way to exchange ideas and work together towards a fully renewable Switzerland!
Good news for solar PV
There is great potential for photovoltaics along national roads. This should be opened up as soon as possible. The Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) makes available areas available free of charge and starts an application process.
FEDRO will start the application process on September 19, 2022. It lasts until February 24, 2023. The focus is on around 350 noise barriers and 100 rest areas. These objects were grouped into 15 lots. Interested parties have the opportunity to apply and, after a lot has been allocated, to plan and implement the photovoltaic system on the corresponding area within a specified time frame. A similar procedure was already carried out in 2018 when allocating locations for fast charging stations at rest areas.
The application documents and further information (incl. visualization tool) are available here: www.astra.admin.ch/photovoltaik
Copyrights: article from the Swiss Federal of Energy's website (https://www.uvek.admin.ch/uvek/de/home/uvek/medien/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-90400.html)
The SWEET EDGE survey has started!
Updates on EDGE P&D project in Wittenbach (WP5)
Our Research Partner Prof. Jürg Rohrer from ZHAW is moving forward with EDGE P&D project in the Swiss midlands (WP 5).
Find the full article in the St. Galler Tagblatt -> full article here [in German]
And listen to the broadcast from radio SRF -> broadcast here [in German]
Our second Newsletter is out !
Welcome to our second SWEET-EDGE quarterly newsletter accessible here. It is a pleasure to keep you updated about our latest news, events, guests and to share articles and ideas with you. All newsletters are now available in three languages: English, German and French. Please choose your preferred language here.
Agro-PV system to grow lamb's lettuce
Welcome our new partners in economics
We are proud to announce the arrival of two new EDGE partners in economics.
Our first partner is Regina Betz, Head of Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) @ZHAW, working in collaboration with Hannes Weigt from @UniBasel_en.
Our first Youtube Interview is out!
For this first interview video, we were delighted to welcome Annelen Kahl, Co-founder of SUNWELL. Her work focuses on PV production in snow-covered mountains. SUNWELL’s vision is to establish alpine solar energy as a prominent part of the renewable energy landscape. To realize SUNWELL's vision, the team is developing a comprehensive, robust and scalable software platform that combines all the design, planning and operation of alpine solar farms into one tool. SUNWELL's motto: "Best designs faster, and at the lowest cost". Learn more about Annelen Kahl and SUNWELL from our Youtube video.
Our first Newsletter is out !
Welcome to our first SWEET-EDGE quarterly newsletter accessible here. It is a pleasure to keep you updated about our latest news, events, guests and to share articles and ideas with you. Please note that while this first newsletter is in English, the upcoming ones will be available in three languages: English, German and French. Please choose your preferred language here.
Meet our Advisory Board Members !
We are proud to introduce our Advisory Board Members. The Advisory Board will assist and facilitate the decisions made by the Consortium.
It is made of six experts in the field of climate change from various institutions:
Kornelis Blok, Marius Haibel, Julie Lundquist, Gianni Operto, Carlos Alvarez Pereira, Gabriele Spilker.
Good news for the Swiss Alps
The International Mountain Conference of September 2022 IMC2022 aims at gaining insights into initiatives towards climate neutrality in mountains around the world, including in the swiss alps and addressing mountain-specific energy transitions.
"Climate change severely affects mountain regions. The need to develop territorial policies to mitigate climate change, including through energy transitions, is especially relevant given that climate governance is still state-centered and suffers from an “implementation deficit”. Since the inclusion of the Paris Agreement conditions in national political agendas, their implementation at the local level has encountered several obstacles. In mountain areas, bottom-up systematic transition processes that rest upon innovative participative and territorial models of governance can enable and enhance buy-in and cooperation. Mountain regions face a range of energy-pathway choices in the context of accelerated climate change, Nationally Determined Contributions for emissions, and mountain communities’ own development aspirations. This session aims to gain insights into initiatives towards climate neutrality in various mountain regions around the world, discuss key challenges of policy implementation and address mountain-specific energy transitions (solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, biomass, biochar and other forms of renewable carbon)"
Visit their website for more information.
We are online!
The new website for SWEET EDGE is now online, offering detailed information on the SWEET EDGE goals, the background and the 11 work packages. Also read about the unique concept of the three regions, a specific focus of the project. Research partners, cooperation partners, support partners and the advisory board are all listed.
The website was developed in cooperation with Palmiro Nigro from Digital Art Zurich. Contact us on sweet-edge@unige.ch if you have any questions.
