Record year for wind power in Switzerland in 2024

2024 was a "good year but less exceptional than 2023", Suisse-Eole said. Keystone-SDA

Wind generated 160 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity across Switzerland last year, according to the Swiss Wind Energy Association (Suisse-Eole). It was a "good year but less exceptional than 2023", it said.

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This was equivalent to the household electricity consumed annually by 150,000 people, or the inhabitants of a city like Zug, St Gallen or Neuchâtel, the Swiss Wind Energy Association (Suisse-Eole) said on Tuesday.

Like hydropower and solar energy, the production of wind energy depends on the weather and location. In the Rhone and Rhine valleys, for example, it was mainly thermal winds. At the Gotthard or Gütsch above Andermatt in canton Uri, the Föhn wind ensured record production, while the wind turbines in the Jura benefited from both the Bise and the northerly winds. Two-thirds of wind power production in Switzerland is generated in winter.

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However, wind power remains of only marginal importance for Switzerland’s total electricity supply (0.3% of total). By comparison, 10% of electricity consumption in Switzerland was covered by solar power in 2024.

Switzerland lags far behind its neighbours in this regard. Last year, onshore wind energy accounted for over 26% of the electricity mix in Germany, 9% in France and 13% in Austria. In the German federal state of Saarland alone, 218 wind turbines were in operation, compared to 47 in Switzerland.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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