Canton Zurich restricts solar panel facades on large buildings

The Zurich cantonal building insurance company (GVZ) has restricted the use of solar panels on facades of large buildings due to fire risk. Renewable energy campaigners argue the decision is a blow to the country’s climate goals. Anyone who wants to construct a multi-story building higher than 11 metres and equip the facades with solar panels in the canton of Zurich must now prove that a fire could not spread beyond two stories. This is based on a decision by the cantonal insurance company according to a report in the Tages-Anzeiger, which was confirmed by news agency Keystone-SDA on Saturday. + The world's biggest Alpine solar plant The decision was taken because solar panels were reclassified from “non-combustible” to “hardly combustible” due to the plastic connectors and foils in photovoltaic cells. This means there is a small risk of a fire. David Galeuchet, cantonal parliamentarian from the Green Party and vice-president of Swissolar trade association, told the paper that...