Swiss universities launch green energy coalition

Switzerland's industrial power-to-gas plant in Dietikon uses renewable electricity from the nearby waste incineration plant to produce hydrogen. This is mixed with CO2 from sewage gas to create renewable methane gas. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Switzerland’s prestigious federal institutions of technology ETH Zurich and EPFL have launched a major renewable energy initiative with partners aimed at developing solutions to stock and transport green power.

Switzerland wants to accelerate its transition to renewable energies to achieve a net-zero emission balance (climate neutrality) by 2050. But the country faces a “combined energy and climate crisis”, ETH Zurich said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.

“To achieve the net-zero target for 2050 while avoiding an energy shortfall, the country is dependent on renewable energy sources, seasonal storage options and an efficient link to the European electricity market,” it said.

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Many promising technologies are currently under development but not yet fully operational. These include pumped-storage power plants, batteries and heat storage systems, synthetic fuels and gases such as hydrogen for storing, transporting and trading cheap electricity from photovoltaic plants in the summer for use later in the winter.

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To achieve Switzerland’s net-zero target while ensuring a sustainable energy supply, the ETH Zurich and EPFL have formed a “Coalition for Green Energy and Storage” to work with partners from politics, science and industry to develop innovative storage and transport solutions for renewable energy carriers.

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“The purpose of the coalition is to enable existing technologies for carbon capture and the production and storage of carbon-neutral gases and fuels to be brought to market quickly and reach industrial scale,” explained ETH President Joël Mesot.

The two federal universities want to combine their skills and knowledge: 150 research groups specialising in energy, around 460 scientists and four successful spin-offs are active in carbon capture and energy storage, together with other research groups at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa).

Around 20 companies and organisations have expressed an interest in collaborating with the scientists, including Alpiq, AMAG, Swiss Federal Railways, Gaznat, Geneva Airport, Implenia, Rolex and SWISS International Air Lines.

The first projects are expected to be launched at the beginning of next year. The budget for the first phase of the project has been fixed at CHF100 million.