Energy storage: Swiss politics lags behind technology

Politics is lagging behind technology when it comes to energy storage Keystone-SDA

There are many technical solutions for seasonal energy storage. However, according to a report by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, there is a lack of clear political and regulatory guidelines for expanding them on a large scale in Switzerland.

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Seasonal energy storage is central to the energy transition, wrote the Energy Commission of the Academies of Sciences and Humanities in a press release on the report published on Monday. Such technologies are intended to overcome the so-called winter gap.

As the authors state in the report, numerous technically mature storage solutions exist. These range from storage lakes and heat storage in the ground or in large water tanks to chemical storage systems that convert surplus electricity into hydrogen, methane or synthetic fuels.

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Nevertheless, the experts write in the report that the availability of seasonal storage facilities in Switzerland is still limited. The reasons for this are economic uncertainties and regulatory hurdles.

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Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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