GEDT seminar: Spatial diffusion of solar PV in Switzerland

Léon Hirt, PhD student in the GEDT, will present his research during the upcoming online GEDT seminar on Wednesday June 2nd from 12h15  to 13h45. 

With growing concerns regarding climate change, transitioning to renewable energy sources to decarbonize our societies through solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, hydropower, and biomass is seen as paramount. Solar PV has garnered increasing attention as a technology that could accelerate renewable energy deployment and thus help meet energy targets, in part due to its high technical potential, ubiquitous nature, rapid reducing cost, and granularity. In the last decade, national policies have led to an important surge in solar PV; however, the uptake has been uneven within countries, including Switzerland.

Thus, Léon Hirt's PhD thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the spatial diffusion of solar PV in Switzerland through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches. The presentation will provide an overview of the research carried out until now and present some of the core findings. First, the presentation will reflect on different ways of combining so-called socio-technical transition theories and quantitative models as well as their benefits. Then, regarding solar PV specifically, the presentation will provide some of the main findings obtained until now, namely that various socio-technical regimes exist across Switzerland and lead to different rates of adoption of solar PV, and that different sub-national imaginaries accompany PV development and which stem from various actors that engage with this technology. Finally, the presentation will outline an ongoing study that explores the frames and narratives that accompany the development of solar PV in Switzerland and their potential effect on modelled solar PV scenarios. 

This seminar is open to the public. To join and get the Zoom information, send an email to Sebastien.Lambelet(at)unige.ch.