Energy Bern cantonal parliament committee does not want mandatory solar energy for renovations
The preliminary advisory committee has submitted a weakened counter-proposal to the Bernese solar initiative to the Bernese cantonal parliament. For example, there should be no solar obligation for the renovation of existing buildings.
03.07.2024, 11:28
SDA
Instead, the Building, Energy, Transport and Spatial Planning Commission (BAK) is calling for a reporting obligation for extensive roof renovations, as it announced on Wednesday. In this context, owners would have to state whether the roof surfaces are suitable for the use of solar energy.
The commission also wants less stringent conditions for new residential buildings with an area of up to 300 square meters. According to the communication, suitable roof surfaces should not have to be equipped as fully as possible for solar energy use. Instead, the BAK is only calling for use in the order of magnitude of the building's own requirements.
The counter-proposal also includes a solar obligation for larger public parking spaces. This should apply to new managed parking spaces of 80 parking spaces or more, as well as to existing and new state-financed park-and-ride facilities with more than 50 parking spaces.
With the counter-proposal, the BAK is implementing a directive from the Grand Council. In March, it instructed the commission to revise the proposal, which had already been watered down by the government. The Grand Council will decide on the initiative and the counter-proposal in the upcoming fall session.
The Greens submitted the solar initiative at the end of 2021 with 18,379 valid signatures. It demands a solar installation for all new buildings and also for existing buildings, provided the roof and façade surfaces are suitable and the installation is reasonable.
