EDGE wants to fast-track the growth of locally sourced decentralized renewable energy in Switzerland. The project aims to ensure that by 2035 and 2050, when ambitious shares of renewable energy are reached, the Swiss energy system is designed and operated in a technically and economically optimal and secure way, and that it is well positioned in the European markets.
The Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) at ZHAW is involved in work packages 7 and 8 of EDGE. In work package 7, “Deployment and integration of decentralized systems”, we contribute to the economic analysis of various technology scenarios of the electricity sector and study how the Swiss electricity sector interacts with the European one. In work package 8, “Policy, markets, and finance to scale up renewable systems”, we use a numerical model for analysing how electricity market design and other policies influence the decisions of households to invest in decentralized renewable generation capacity. We then assess what the distributional effects of the policy measures are and if the outcomes can be considered equitable.