Switzerland lacks wind and solar capacity to meet climate targets

Switzerland needs four times as many solar installations to meet climate targets Keystone-SDA

Significantly more electricity from wind and solar power is needed to achieve Switzerland's climate targets. This is the conclusion of a new report by a Swiss research consortium.

Switzerland plans to cover around 60% of its electricity needs with new renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics, wind energy and biomass by 2050. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) announced on Thursday that the new report is the first to comprehensively analyse how this could be achieved.

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The result indicates the capacity of installed solar power plants would have to be quadrupled compared to today. The capacity of wind turbines would have to be 80 times greater. “This strong increase in photovoltaics and wind energy by 2050 is hardly conceivable without effective subsidies,” study co-author Giovanni Sansavini from ETH Zurich was quoted as saying in the press release.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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