Swiss initiative to waive permits for solar installations fails

Organizers did not submit enough valid signatures before the collection deadline, the Federal Chancellery said.

Switzerland’s popular initiative “For Solar Installations Exempt from Planning Permission” will not go to a vote after failing to secure enough signatures. The Federal Chancellery said the collection period expired on October 8 without the required 100,000 signatures being submitted.

The committee said 117,500 people had signed the proposal. But checks in July and August found that nearly 20,000 signatures were invalid, Roland Weiss, one of the initiative’s originators, told Keystone-SDA. He said a lawyer was investigating why the number of invalid signatures was so high despite the use of signature-gathering companies.

The proposal sought a constitutional amendment allowing solar panels on buildings and facilities without planning permission in both protected and unprotected areas. Exceptions would have applied to nationally or cantonally significant cultural monuments and historic sites, where permits could still have been issued with conditions.