CTO Assessment - European Commission

LAUSANNE
Solar City
Contact : Pierre-Pascal Favre •Ville de Lausanne – Direction des Services industriels,
service gaz & cad• Pl. Chauderon 25 • CP 836• 1000 Lausanne • Switzerland
Email: pierre-pascal.favre@lausanne.ch • Tel: +41 21 315 87 10
Website: www.lausanne.ch/energie
The city of Lausanne in Switzerland and its
Utilities (SIL) has already received international
recognition and several prizes, among
which the European Solar Prize, for the city’s
major effort in developing RES. City’s activities
aim to develop PV: among others a 570
m 2 surface of solar panels was installed on a
city Sport stadium. Other activities are in
the area of solar thermal, biomass and district
heating systems (DHS).
The Initiative
Lausanne has for some time been committed
to an annual investment to guarantee a minimum
installation of 10 kWp PV capacity.
This program stopped in 2000 and was replaced
by a «solar stock exchange».
The broad PV activities encompass the installation
of a PV roof on the sport stadium.
Hence, the 65 kWp solar generator occupies
a surface of 570 m 2 , composed of 1.296
panels. The electricity current is re-injected
after having been transformed into AC of
220 volts.
Another project offered the possibility to citizens
to buy a solar kit, largely subsidized by
the city to reach the price of 550 Swiss francs
(about 350 euros). This campaign introduced
in 1999 has had so much success that there
were no solar kits available any more.
More than 400 m 2 of solar thermal panels
have been installed by the Lausanne Utilities
on residential buildings property of the City
of Lausanne.
Other activities include RES when making
urban planning. For instance, the SIL pushes
to integrate biomass DHS instead of choosing
a cheaper but unclean option. The investment
is minimal for the owners, but is transferred
to the cost of the people renting the
houses.
Overall Evaluation:
The overall RES approach has been very
successful, partly because it has been able
to approach citizens by giving them readyfor-use
products (the solar kits), and partly
because one of the most symbolic place of
the city, the Pontaise stadium, has become
a symbol for an innovative and clean approach
to energy supply of a city.
Main innovative aspects
Subsidies on photovoltaics range between
1,000 and 2,000 CHF (640–1,300 euros)
according to the installed peak power of the
PV plant.
Lausanne utilities also introduced in 1997 a
local tax of 0.025 CHF/kWh (0.016 EUR/
kWh) on the increase of the annual consumption
of electricity. The amount of money in the
so-created fund is thus directly proportional
to the variation of the Lausanne’s annual consumption
and can only be used for investments
made in the renewable energy for electricity
production (hydro excluded!) and energy efficiency
for electrical appliances sectors.
Enabling factors
The fact that Lausanne developed this original
fund combined with the influence of a
strong Green party and a charismatic person
representing the party have played a major
role by influencing energy efficiency and renewable
energy projects.
Innovation
Photovoltaics
Solar thermal
Biomass DHS
plant
Overall RES
increase
Creation of
jobs
Challenges
The introduction of a tax is a sensitive issue:
only an increase in energy consumption will
lead to further investments in RES, whereas
RES and EE efforts should ideally go together.
The push for houses to be connected to a biomass
DHS is also a delicate step: All the cost
is reported onto the renters, a majority in
Switzerland, without having given them the
choice to do so.
Replication Potential
Inspired by the example of the PV stadium of
Lausanne, another PV stadium was inaugurated
in 2002 in Basel (Switzerland). Several
regions of Switzerland have also finalized their
interest in PV kits and bought 400 of them.
Environmental targets
A good example of concerted approach between
the regional authority dealing with
transport emissions, and the electricity utility
dealing with electricity and heat emission in
houses is, for instance, in the case where a big
supermarket is planned in the periphery of the
city, because this generates many traffic emissions,
the electricity utility pushes to convince
the legislative power to declare the obligation
to connect the building zone to DHS.
Installation of a PV roof on the sport stadium for a surface of 570 m 2 ,
for 1,296 panels; more than 400 m 2 of solar thermal panels installed by
the SIL on residential buildings property of the City of Lausanne.
17 installations PV plants have been installed and are owned by the
Services Industriels de Lausanne (SIL) for a capacity of 190 kWp
8 PV installations for 234 kWp are in private ownership but under the
contract of SIL in the framework of the Solar programme (bourse
solaire); three electrical boats (each powered by 3.5 kWp of PV, are
operational on the lake of Geneva for tourists). The proportion of PV
represents 0.02%.
The total m 2 surface of solar thermal integrally covers the yearly
consumption of hot water for 200 people
The DHS is powered by the waste burning plant, the wasted water
treatment plant and a wood-fired plant
Still a very low % compared to large hydropower and nuclear power
Small local enterprises active in PV have been able to survive and
are well established by now, thanks to the mandates of the SIL
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