Calculate your PV system's yield in thirty seconds. Below the tool, official BFE and PVGIS figures show what a kilowatt-hour of Swiss solar power is actually worth in 2026.
Informational and non-binding
This calculator is informational and non-binding. Actual savings/earnings vary.
Enter your system size in kWp and the specific yield at your location. The calculator shows how many kilowatt-hours the system produces per year and what you earn from it — fed into the grid, sold to neighbours through a LEG, or a combination of both.
If you don't know your local yield: the table below lists it for eleven Swiss locations, from 1'121 kWh per kWp in St. Gallen to 1'411 in Sion. The second table shows how much of that orientation and roof pitch leave you.
Traditional feed-in tariffs offer low returns on your solar investment. UpGrid communities allow you to sell directly to your neighbors at better prices with no membership fees, no transaction costs, and no additional charges - creating a win-win situation for both producers and consumers.
For feed-in, the calculator defaults to 4.41 Rp./kWh. That is the 2024 annual mean of the BFE reference market price weighted by the electricity actually fed in — not the peak value of any single quarter. The same figure for 2025 is 5.56 Rp., and 5.49 Rp. for the first half of 2026. You can override it under "Adjust prices".
The specific yield per kWp depends mostly on location. According to PVGIS 5.3 the range runs from 1'121 kWh/kWp in St. Gallen to 1'411 in Sion, both at 30 degrees facing south. The 1'000 kWh/kWp default is deliberately conservative and matches the federal assumption for a single-family reference system.
The calculator combines your self-consumption share with how you market the surplus — fed into the grid or sold through a LEG. As a reference, the federal government assumes 35 percent self-consumption for a 15 kW single-family system and 47 percent for a 60 kW system in a ZEV. The calculator defaults to 30 percent.
The specific yield tells you how many kilowatt-hours one kilowatt-peak delivers per year at your location. It is the most important input in the calculator — and it varies by more than a quarter within Switzerland. The figures below apply to a south-facing pitched roof at 30 degrees.
| Location | kWh per kWp | 10 kWp system | Elevation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sion (VS) | 1'411 | 14'110 kWh | 520 m |
| Lugano (TI) | 1'307 | 13'070 kWh | 272 m |
| Lausanne (VD) | 1'275 | 12'750 kWh | 499 m |
| Interlaken (BE) | 1'273 | 12'730 kWh | 569 m |
| Geneva (GE) | 1'265 | 12'650 kWh | 393 m |
| Chur (GR) | 1'235 | 12'350 kWh | 602 m |
| Bern (BE) | 1'232 | 12'320 kWh | 547 m |
| Basel (BS) | 1'161 | 11'610 kWh | 265 m |
| Lucerne (LU) | 1'150 | 11'500 kWh | 445 m |
| Zurich (ZH) | 1'145 | 11'450 kWh | 416 m |
| St. Gallen (SG) | 1'121 | 11'210 kWh | 685 m |
PVGIS 5.3, European Commission Joint Research Centre, SARAH3 radiation database, mean of 2005 to 2023. Assumptions: 1 kWp crystalline silicon, 30-degree tilt, due south, 14 percent system losses, horizon from the terrain model. Queried 7 August 2026.
Valais leads because Sion sits high, dry and far south: 1'411 kWh per kWp is roughly a quarter more than St. Gallen's 1'121. On a 10 kWp system that is 2'900 kilowatt-hours a year of difference, with nothing about the system itself changing. As a rule of thumb, expect 1'100 to 1'200 in the Mittelland and north-east, and 1'250 to 1'400 in Romandy, Ticino and Valais.
A south-facing roof is optimal, but the gap to the alternatives is smaller than most people expect. The figures are for Zurich; the percentages transfer to any location in the table above.
| Orientation | 15° | 30° | 45° | Best case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South | 1'086 | 1'145 | 1'145 | 100% |
| South-west | 1'053 | 1'088 | 1'074 | 95% |
| South-east | 1'046 | 1'076 | 1'059 |
Producing is one half of the equation. The other is the price you get for it — and that changed fundamentally in 2026.
Since 1 January 2026 the BFE's quarterly reference market price is the nationally harmonised remuneration under Art. 15 para. 1 EnG. It applies whenever a grid operator and a producer do not agree on a price. Most recently published: Q2 2026 at 3.90 Rp./kWh.
| Quarter | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 6.20 Rp. | 10.38 Rp. | 10.27 Rp. |
| Q2 | 3.51 Rp. | 2.76 Rp. | 3.90 Rp. |
| Q3 | 3.34 Rp. | 5.73 Rp. |
When the federal government set the minimum tariff, it had to work out whether a system pays for itself over its lifetime. The assumptions behind that are published — and they are the most solid official reference on Swiss PV costs available.
| Reference system | Self-consumption | CHF per kW | Investment grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family house, 15 kW | 35% | 2'444incl. VAT | 5'400 |
| Apartment building in a ZEV, 60 kW | 47% | 1'644incl. VAT | 19'800 |
| Commercial, 90 kW | 50% | 1'416excl. VAT | 28'800 |
The order is not a matter of taste: it follows the price per kilowatt-hour, from top to bottom.
By far the best price, because you avoid the full grid tariff instead of receiving a remuneration. Running the washing machine and dishwasher at midday, shifting the boiler and heat pump, charging the car during the day: that is how you push a single-family system past the assumed 35 percent self-consumption.
The default route for surplus: least effort, lowest price. Since 2026 the reference market price is the fallback, backstopped by the minimum tariff. Budget with the weighted annual mean, not with whichever quarter happens to be in front of you.
A ZEV distributes your electricity to residents of the same building. That lifts self-consumption noticeably — the federal reference system in a ZEV reaches 47 percent instead of 35. The downside: the pool of buyers stops at your own wall, and the billing stays your problem.
Since January 2026 you can sell your surplus through a local electricity community directly to households in the same municipality, at a price you agree yourself, between the feed-in tariff and the grid tariff. It is the only route where the surplus earns substantially more than the few centimes of the reference market price — without producing a single extra kilowatt-hour.
Yields: European Commission, Joint Research Centre — PVGIS 5.3 (SARAH3 radiation database, 2005–2023), queried 7 August 2026. Remuneration: Swiss Federal Office of Energy BFE, "Referenz-Marktpreise gemäss Art. 15 EnFV", publications of 9 March 2026 and 14 July 2026. Minimum tariff, guarantee-of-origin prices and reference systems: UVEK, "Änderung der Energieverordnung mit Inkrafttreten am 1. Januar 2026 — Erläuternder Bericht", 19 February 2025. Grid tariff: ElCom, 2026 tariffs, median H4 household profile.
| 94% |
| West | 963 | 930 | 876 | 84% |
|---|
| East | 952 | 915 | 857 | 83% |
|---|
| Flat roof (0°) | 973 | 85% | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
PVGIS 5.3, Zurich at 416 metres, 14 percent system losses. 100 percent is the south-facing 30-degree reference case at 1'145 kWh per kWp. "Best case" is the best of the three pitches in that row.
A purely north-facing roof at 30 degrees delivers 648 kWh per kWp, or 57 percent of the optimum. That is the only case where orientation genuinely changes the decision — anything between east and west keeps you above 80 percent.
For east and west the pitch logic inverts: flatter is better. A west-facing roof delivers 963 kWh per kWp at 15 degrees but only 876 at 45. East-west systems also have an advantage the annual yield figure hides — they produce in the morning and evening, when a household actually uses electricity. For your self-consumption share that is often worth more than the last few percent of annual yield.
| pending |
| Q4 | 8.75 Rp. | 9.51 Rp. | pending |
|---|
| Weighted avg. | 4.41 Rp. | 5.56 Rp. | 5.49 Rp. (H1) |
|---|
BFE, "Referenz-Marktpreise gemäss Art. 15 EnFV", publications of 9 March 2026 and 14 July 2026. Prices exclude VAT. Q3 2026 is published on 14 October 2026 and Q4 2026 on 15 January 2027 — left open here rather than estimated. "Weighted avg." is the annual mean weighted by the electricity actually fed in.
In 2025 the weighted mean was 5.56 Rp./kWh — the simple mean of the four quarters was 7.09. The gap is not a rounding error: 76 percent of the electricity fed in fell in Q2 and Q3, which are precisely the two cheapest quarters. Photovoltaics delivers most when the market pays least. Anyone budgeting from the quarter in front of them is budgeting too optimistically.
So that producers are not left exposed when prices collapse, the federal government introduced a floor in 2026. If the reference market price falls below it, the grid operator pays the difference.
| Case | Capacity | Minimum tariff |
|---|---|---|
| System below 30 kW (in practice always with self-consumption) | 15 kW | 6 Rp. |
| System with self-consumption, e.g. in a ZEV | 60 kW | 3 Rp. |
| System with self-consumption, commercial | 90 kW | 2 Rp. |
| System with no self-consumption at all | 90 kW | 6.2 Rp. |
Art. 15 para. 1bis EnG and Art. 12 para. 1bis EnV, in force since 1 January 2026. From 30 kW with self-consumption, the 6 Rp. rate applies pro rata to the first 30 kW only — a 130 kW system therefore lands at 1.38 Rp./kWh. VAT-registered producers are paid VAT on top by the grid operator.
The reference market price covers only the kilowatt-hour, not its environmental value. Many grid operators buy that separately and voluntarily, as a guarantee of origin. For systems below 30 kW the trend looks like this:
| Year | Avg. GO price | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 3.4 Rp. | 57% |
| 2020 | 3.4 Rp. | 61% |
| 2021 | 3.3 Rp. | 74% |
| 2022 | 3.2 Rp. | 76% |
| 2023 | 2.9 Rp. | 84% |
| 2024 | 2.5 Rp. | 84% |
UVEK, explanatory report on the amendment to the Energy Ordinance effective 1 January 2026, Table 1. "Coverage" is the share of end consumers in grid areas where operators voluntarily buy guarantees of origin. Over seven years the mean was 3.1 Rp./kWh — but it has been falling since 2019. Whether your grid operator buys them is something you have to ask; there is no obligation.
UVEK, explanatory report on the amendment to the Energy Ordinance effective 1 January 2026, Table 2. The specific installation costs are the BFE's observed means for 2018 to 2023 — an official reference assumption, not a current quote. Also assumed: 25 years of service life, 0.15 percent module degradation per year, and the investment grant rates in force from 1 April 2025 for roof-mounted systems.
The self-consumption column is the important one. Every kilowatt-hour you use yourself saves you the full grid tariff — 27.7 Rp./kWh at the 2026 ElCom median. Every kilowatt-hour you export earns you 6 Rp. in the worst case. The gap is more than fourfold, and it is why anything that raises your self-consumption beats any optimisation on the roof.
