Abstract for: The Impacts of Governmental Policies on the Investment Decision for Renewable Energies in the Swiss Electricity Market

Switzerland faces the challenge to shut down the existing nuclear power plants and mutually stimulate a shift to renewable electricity sources, while ensuring a secure electricity provision. The investment decision for the specific technologies is a central leverage point in the system. The currently applied feed-in remuneration tariff policy to alter the profitability of renewable energies is very cost-intensive and does not bring the desired results. A System Dynamics simulation model was built to better understand the interplay of the different electricity technologies and test alternative policies to raise the competitiveness of renewable energies. Results are gained on long-term developments of the installed capacity of the different technologies depending on varying costs trends and public policies. This paper makes a practical contribution to the management of the energy transition by evaluating different policy options to steer the electricity provision system towards a more sustainable direction.