Energy Solar installations should be able to be built without a building permit
Solar installations on buildings and facilities are often blocked by monument preservation or local heritage commissions. A national popular initiative now wants to change this. In future, it should be possible to install such systems without a building permit.
08.04.2025, 14:09
SDA
The federal popular initiative "For permit-free solar installations (solar installation initiative)" was published in the Federal Gazette on Tuesday. The authors have until October 8, 2026 to collect the 100,000 signatures required for the initiative to come to fruition.
The initiative calls for a new constitutional article for solar installations on buildings and facilities. No building permit should be required for such installations inside and outside protected sites and landscapes. Exceptions are installations on cultural monuments of national or cantonal importance and on historical sites. Here, a building permit can be subject to conditions.
If the initiative is accepted by the people and the cantons, parliament would only have one year to implement the law. Otherwise, the Federal Council would have to bring the implementing provisions into force in the form of an ordinance.
Demand for less bureaucracy
There are no nationally known personalities on the initiative committee. Listed in the Federal Gazette are seven private individuals from an interest group (IG Solaranlagen association) from the cantons of Aargau, Baselland and Solothurn. The committee is based in Wintersingen BL.
The expansion of renewable energies is essential to combat climate change, according to the initiative committee's website. "But despite technological advances, solar installations are repeatedly blocked by complicated planning permission procedures." Simpler solutions and less bureaucracy are needed for the urgently needed expansion of renewable energies.
Parliament is currently working on accelerating the expansion of domestic hydropower, solar and wind power. However, the so-called acceleration decree is controversial. The left-wing green party, for example, criticizes the planned restriction of the right of appeal. The SVP is fundamentally skeptical about the energy transition.
