Suitability of façades for the use of solar energy

Last updated: July 27, 2022

Terms of use

Organization: Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE

Categories: Energy, Environment

Description

The sun's energy that reaches the Earth's surface can be used, via two proven forms of solar technology – photovoltaics (electric current) and solar thermal energy (heat) – to generate renewable energy. Solar power has considerable potential: by 2050, around 20 per cent of the present demand for electricity could be generated using photovoltaics. Solar heat is an interesting option thanks to various types of standardised installation for warm water and heating support. The suitability map shows how well-suited individual façades are to using solar energy and what yield would be possible. To determine this, the course of the sun over the year is simulated and the solar radiation that reaches each façade calculated. The specified surface equals the entire surface of the façade and does not involve a reduction due to windows or similar. Radiation data from the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSchweiz and 3D building data from the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo (product swissBUILDINGS3D 2.0) was used in these calculations.

This dataset can be visualized on visualize.admin.ch.

Resources

Showcases

Additional information

Identifier

3849f57d-9bdd-428c-8d13-08be446e197a@bundesamt-fur-energie-bfe

Issued date

October 1, 2016

Modified date

July 27, 2022

Conforms to

Publisher

Contact points

geoinformation@bfe.admin.ch

Languages

English
German
French
Italian

Further information

Landing page

https://www.bfe.admin.ch/solarenergie-eignung-fassaden

Documentation

Temporal coverage

Spatial coverage

Schweiz

Update interval

Metadata Access

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