3S may have been trading in its current form since 2018, but the company has been developing and producing integrated photovoltaic solar modules in Switzerland for more than 20 years. “Roof tiles, façades, balusters – we turn building materials into electricity generators,” says CEO Patrick Hofer-Noser. “And we stand out from the competition because our products are nice to look at, too.” The company produces around 250,000 m2 of panels each year, fitting solar panels to around 15 buildings every day. The market-leading building-integrated photovoltaics producer, in 2023 3S opened a new production line, tripling its output. “The solar panels market is growing by 30% a year, but within the company we’re growing even faster!” he adds. 3S is turning a handsome profit and employing more than 200 people, including 50 on temporary contracts.
Active mainly in Switzerland, the company also has a presence in Austria and Germany and has set its sights on other European countries, adapting its products to ensure they meet local construction materials standards. 3S targets the B2B market and has customers of all sizes. It supplies some 300 installers in Switzerland, from small companies right up to the energy market’s big hitters such as BKW and Axpo. Its projects vary from individual family homes to large apartment blocks and including commercial buildings, parking shelters, ski lift terminals and even mountain huts.
And 3S manufactures products for other companies too – the bespoke coloured solar panels developed by Solaxess and Kromatix, for example. The company also has the facilities to mass-produce the products coming out of the labs of Swiss engineering schools and research centres such as the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchâtel. And that’s not all: its integrated solar modules can also be combined with the Next3 inverters developed by Studer Innotec. “All of these synergies are a mark of the expertise that has grown up in Switzerland, which is crucial in developing the aesthetic solar products of the future,” says Patrick Hofer-Noser.
3S Swiss Solar Solutions AG
