Energy policy hots up

swissinfo.ch

Swiss energy policy finds itself caught between the growing demands of an expanding economy and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The authorities have had to balance the concerns about climate change with providing the population with a secure and reasonably priced energy.

The debate has been going on for decades. A commission was created in 1973 to come up with an energy concept for the country.

The body issued a final report five years later, and some of its recommendations were incorporated into the article on energy in the federal constitution.

This gave the government a framework within which it could demand energy-saving measures, and promote environment-friendly sources of energy.

The efforts slowed – but did not stop – the pace of energy consumption. In 2005, the Swiss population used 40 per cent more energy than it did in 1980. The total consumption in 2005 was 890,000 terajoules (one terajoule equals 280,000 kilowatts per hour).

The ball is now in the court of the Federal Energy Office which published a series of recommendations earlier this year. The office’s aims are two-fold: to reduce consumption and to ensure a sufficient supply of energy.

To this end, the office has presented four scenarios that could unfold between now and 2035.

The first scenario outlines a business as usual or “status quo” approach, while the second calls for more cooperation between the state and industry in order to set emission targets. If either of these scenarios plays out, so-called end energy consumption still increases by a few percentage points.

More taxes

The third variant, “new priorities” puts the emphasis on the use of instruments such as higher taxes on fossil fuels and more strict building codes, and foresees a 14 per cent decline in end-energy consumption.

Scenario four (the so-called 2000-watt society) sees a 27 per cent reduction if comprehensive measures are introduced requiring large investments to improve energy efficiency, promote new technologies and rely more heavily on public transport and more dense and compact housing developments.

However, the authors of the study cautioned that even this last scenario would not be enough to prevent a domestic energy shortfall by 2020 when three older nuclear power plants are due to go offline.

Given the likely power shortage, the Energy Office wants an improvement in energy efficiency at all levels. Second on its list is an increase in hydroelectricity.

A new generation nuclear power plant and gas-fired power stations would fill any remaining gaps, with the carbon dioxide emissions of the latter compensated abroad.

The Energy Office is not taking into account how much supply might come from new nuclear plants in the pipeline since these are not likely to go online before 2030.

swissinfo, based on a German article by Ulrich Goetz

Electrifying

In 2005 Swiss nuclear power stations provided the bulk of domestic supply accounting for 38 per cent.

30.7 per cent comes from hydropower stations; 25.9 per cent from hydraulic power stations; conventional thermal power plants (fired by fossil fuels or biofuels) deliver 5.4 per cent.

In 2005 production sank by 8.8 per cent compared to the previous year.