Alpine nimbism freezes dreams of Swiss green energy

In the Swiss Alps, where there is snow even in mid-June, workers install photovoltaic panels on the face of Europe’s highest dam.

Switzerland has long been based on its reputation for clean energy: aided by abundant hydroelectric power, less than 10% of the electricity it produces emits greenhouse gases. Yet today, Switzerland’s complex regulatory process and local objections to possible eye lightning make new green projects, such as the Muttsee swamp, an exception.

As a result, one of the richest and most environmentally conscious societies in the world is in danger of retreating. Switzerland is also on the verge of becoming more dependent on imported energy, just as it faces the growing risk that it could be separated from the EU’s electricity grid by increasingly fragile diplomatic conflict with Brussels.

The government is committed to shutting down the country’s three nuclear power plants over the next decade or so. When that happens, Switzerland will lose a third of its current energy generation and no one is sure how the deficit will be offset.

“The idea of ​​the project was to really try to show what is feasible,” said Christian Heierli, project leader for power company Axpo at Muttsee’s AlpinSolar project.

Axpo expects the facility, built with 320 tons of material flown by helicopter at 2,500 meters above sea level, to show the solar potential of Switzerland.

“It simply came to our notice then [renewable] projects in Switzerland, “Heierli said. Obtaining permits to build solar and wind farms was almost impossible, he added.” Apart from people installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of their homes, nothing else happens. ”

Bern acknowledges he has a problem. Last year, Switzerland produced only 311kWh of energy per resident from solar and wind energy, according to the Swiss Energy Foundation, a renewable energy think tank. In comparison, Denmark produced 3027 kWh, Germany 2232 kWh and the United Kingdom 1304 kWh.

The potential of new hydropower plants, which account for 58% of supplies, is reduced, as upgrades to existing facilities only increase production in marginal quantities, experts warn.

At the same time, Switzerland last month rejected lengthy negotiations with Brussels on a new framework agreement to codify its extensive network of bilateral treaties.

As a result, last Thursday expired the first of several treaties regulating Swiss connections to the EU energy market. While there is only a remote possibility that Switzerland will be cut off from the EU grid unless a permanent agreement is reached with Brussels, the country risks higher energy costs and uncertain supplies.

This would be especially heavy, as Switzerland’s energy production is seasonal: in the winter months, as rivers freeze, it depends more on energy imports to meet demand.

“We just don’t know how electricity exchange will work with the EU in five or ten years,” said Christian Schaffner, director of the energy science center at ETH Zurich and a former energy department official. Swiss federal government. “It’s a great uncertainty.”

It can increase nationally produced renewable energy can help. Both solar and wind work well in winter, thanks to Swiss geography. In the Axpo Muttsee project, for example, solar panels will produce 50% more electricity per square meter than in the lower valley. Colder temperatures improve efficiency, snow reflects light to the panels and the place is often above the cloud line. These features are common to many potential sites.

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The country has the potential – at least solar – to become a European leader. But without a more flexible regulatory environment, opportunities for new projects are scarce.

“The regulatory framework needs to be fundamentally adjusted to increase the expansion of renewable energy,” said Guido Lichtensteiger, a spokesman for Alpiq, one of Switzerland’s largest electricity companies.

Last month, Bern introduced a package of proposed legislative changes to try to bring about more renewable projects. For many, however, the proposals only adjusted to the problem and did little to adequately address the country’s complex approval process, which is deeply rooted in Switzerland’s highly decentralized political system.

A typical building project for a new power plant requires the authorization of the Berne energy and energy regulatory bodies and, again, the same from the government of the canton where it is located.

Communal building permits are also required. As with all constructions in Switzerland, a single individual can oppose. Legal disputes can last for years and are sometimes fought at great expense to the Supreme Court.

In October, the turbines finally began activating the Gotthardpass Windpark, one of Switzerland’s largest renewable projects. But it took 18 years of negotiations to come to fruition.

In the 2017 national referendum to approve the government’s 2050 energy targets, Swiss voters strongly supported more construction plans. Berne plans to build more than 850 wind turbines in the country over the next three decades. Currently, there are only 37.

But so far little has been achieved. Plans for four turbines at Kulmerau-Kirchleerau were recently rejected after the local people rejected the proposals.

“Rich Switzerland is a stronghold of the local opposition that is often described as a federalist tradition,” the Zurich-based newspaper NZZ wrote.

“Many audiences [awareness] it’s not there, ”ETH’s Schaffner added about the difference between Swiss support in principle at the national level and the local reality of the new construction.

“[It] it’s interesting when you think about it. . . that we built all these dams in the Alps years ago, but now we don’t want to. You’ll probably have to talk to a behavioral scientist to understand why. ”