Switzerland: Risks associated with implementing a national energy strategy

Overall, the Swiss prefer domestic production of renewable electricity, but a majority share of imported renewable electricity will likely be cheaper overall and cause fewer issues with intermittency. However, the renewable imports pathway would face more problems with acceptance of new infrastructure, especially long-distance transmission lines. The most recommended option would be to combine the domestic renewable pathway with the imported renewable pathway. The most favourable combination seems to be Swiss rooftop PV, offshore wind from the North Sea, and Swiss hydropower. Such a mix would also be acceptable to the Swiss public. This is especially important, given the Swiss political system in which policies and projects can be challenged in local, cantonal and national referenda. However, depending on the demand for renewables in EU countries, this may require expansion of transmission capacity in the Dutch / Belgian / Danish and German grids. Both the needs for grid expansion, and ways that this could be done in a manner acceptable to residents around the new transmission lines, should be researched further. This narrative has two major implications for the Swiss energy strategy. First, the ES2050 can be broadened to include imports of wind and/or CSP, but Swiss ownership and operational control would be preferable to the Swiss people. Second, as long as there is no forum to resolve the diverging interpretations of ES 2050 amongst local, cantonal and national stakeholders, we can expect conflicts and delays. The risks we examined were of a political, technical and economic nature. The political risks were mostly barriers to implementing one of the pathways, and the technical and economic risks were mostly about the consequences of these pathways. This follows a pattern we have observed in general in the literature about the Swiss energy transition. The most pressing risk seems to be delay or outright failure to obtain permits, and more generally, how to plan and build energy infrastructure without provoking opposition and legal challenges from nearby residents. This has been done successfully in Switzerland, for example for the Linth-Limmern pumped storage plant and its connection to the grid, where residents raised no objections. It would be worthwhile to investigating successful processes for energy infrastructure and determine how these can be mainstreamed

Public preferences for the Swiss electricity system after the nuclear phase-out : a choice experiment

Energy transition towards a sustainable system comprising various energy sources is a major challenge. We conducted a representative survey in the German-speaking part of Switzerland to elicit the population's preferences for electricity from solar, wind or natural gas under different institutional and site-specific conditions. Based on a choice experiment we found a consistent preference for electricity based on solar energy and - to a lesser degree - wind energy, built in existing industrial and commercial areas. We identified five distinct population groups, three of which have a very pronounced profile concerning energy attributes: ‘Pro Renewables', ‘Pro Switzerland’, and ‘Pro Landscape’. The largest two groups, 'Moderates' and ‘Contra Status Quo’ value attributes fairly equally. All groups except Pro Landscape prefer electricity from Switzerland, and all groups except Pro Switzerland accept imports of renewable electricity, preferably from plants operated by Swiss firms. We suggest that unfamiliarity rather than nationalism is at the root of opposition to imports of renewables. An energy mix focusing on renewables and including border-crossing electricity infrastructure could pave the way for a cost-efficient energy transition towards a sustainable and resilient electricity system. Our results show that it would also be publicly acceptable by the majority of the Swiss population

Evaluating consistency in environmental policy mixes through policy, stakeholder, and contextual interactions

This paper introduces a method to analyse and explore consistency within policy mixes in order to support the policymaking cycle and applies it to energy and climate change policies in the United Kingdom (UK) biofuels policy context. The first part of the paper introduces a multi-level method to evaluate consistency within policy mixes implemented over a period of time. The first level explores consistency across policy design features in policy mixes. The second level evaluates how stakeholders, and their interactions with policy instruments and each other, can impact consistency within a given context. These interactions influence the implementation of policies and can lead to unintended outcomes that fail to meet the overarching goals. In the second part of the paper, we apply our method to the UK biofuels policy mix, to explore a sector that cuts across the policy areas of transportation, energy, land-use, air, and climate change. Our analysis demonstrates how, by overlooking complex interactions in the design and implementation of policies in the biofuels sector, policy mixes have conflicted with the development of a potential low-carbon technology

Levelized cost of driving for medium and heavy-duty battery electric trucks

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of trucks is known as one of the main decision-making factors by logistics operators for adopting alternative powertrains such as battery electric trucks (BETs). In this study, we develop a very detailed levelized cost of driving (LCOD) model to analyse the TCO of BETs and conventional trucks (CTs) in medium and heavy-duty truck weight classes. The model has methodological advancements such as developing opportunity costs for charging activities, using a detailed operational time calculation, and analysing the optimum driving ranges or battery sizing. By implementing an extensive sensitivity analysis of LCOD for CTs and BETs over 43 variables, it is revealed that the key parameters such as operational driving range, battery pack price, state of charge of battery, driver cost, “mid-shift” charging power, ambient temperature, opportunity charging, and driving speed have major impacts on the cost competitiveness of BETs vs. CTs. In addition, the impact of battery and charging technology improvements as well as designing optimum driving ranges are examined in three different operational trip profiles (urban, short-haul or regional, long-haul). The result shows that: 1) BETs in urban trip profiles with the current and/or short-term battery technology might be economically viable alternatives for CTs without the help of the policy measures, 2) BETs with below 40 t gross vehicle weight and the long-term improvements in battery technology in all the operational trip profiles might be economically viable alternatives for CTs without the help of the policy measures, and 3) the implementation of policy measures affecting the relative costs of CTs and BETs and development of fast-charging facilities would be needed to support the above 40 t BETs in short-haul and long-haul trips for the current and/or short-term as well as mid-term battery technologies.Peer reviewe

Levelized cost of driving for medium and heavy-duty battery electric trucks

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of trucks is known as one of the main decision-making factors by logistics operators for adopting alternative powertrains such as battery electric trucks (BETs). In this study, we develop a very detailed levelized cost of driving (LCOD) model to analyse the TCO of BETs and conventional trucks (CTs) in medium and heavy-duty truck weight classes. The model has methodological advancements such as developing opportunity costs for charging activities, using a detailed operational time calculation, and analysing the optimum driving ranges or battery sizing. By implementing an extensive sensitivity analysis of LCOD for CTs and BETs over 43 variables, it is revealed that the key parameters such as operational driving range, battery pack price, state of charge of battery, driver cost, “mid-shift” charging power, ambient temperature, opportunity charging, and driving speed have major impacts on the cost competitiveness of BETs vs. CTs. In addition, the impact of battery and charging technology improvements as well as designing optimum driving ranges are examined in three different operational trip profiles (urban, short-haul or regional, long-haul). The result shows that: 1) BETs in urban trip profiles with the current and/or short-term battery technology might be economically viable alternatives for CTs without the help of the policy measures, 2) BETs with below 40 t gross vehicle weight and the long-term improvements in battery technology in all the operational trip profiles might be economically viable alternatives for CTs without the help of the policy measures, and 3) the implementation of policy measures affecting the relative costs of CTs and BETs and development of fast-charging facilities would be needed to support the above 40 t BETs in short-haul and long-haul trips for the current and/or short-term as well as mid-term battery technologies

An adverse tumor-protective effect of IDO1 inhibition

By restoring tryptophan, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) inhibitors aim to reactivate anti-tumor T cells. However, a phase III trial assessing their clinical benefit failed, prompting us to revisit the role of IDO1 in tumor cells under T cell attack. We show here that IDO1 inhibition leads to an adverse protection of melanoma cells to T cell-derived interferon-gamma (IFNγ). RNA sequencing and ribosome profiling shows that IFNγ shuts down general protein translation, which is reversed by IDO1 inhibition. Impaired translation is accompanied by an amino acid deprivation-dependent stress response driving activating transcription factor-4 (ATF4)high/microphtalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF)low transcriptomic signatures, also in patient melanomas. Single-cell sequencing analysis reveals that MITF downregulation upon immune checkpoint blockade treatment predicts improved patient outcome. Conversely, MITF restoration in cultured melanoma cells causes T cell resistance. These results highlight the critical role of tryptophan and MITF in the melanoma response to T cell-derived IFNγ and uncover an unexpected negative consequence of IDO1 inhibition

Current respiratory symptoms and risk factors in pregnant women cooking with biomass fuels in rural Ghana.

BACKGROUND: More than 75% of the population in Ghana relies on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Household air pollution (HAP) emitted from the incomplete combustion of these fuels has been associated with adverse health effects including respiratory effects in women that can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a major contributor to global HAP-related mortality. HAP is a modifiable risk factor in the global burden of disease, exposure to which can be reduced. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, as well as associations between respiratory symptoms and HAP exposure, as measured using continuous personal carbon monoxide (CO), in nonsmoking pregnant women in rural Ghana. METHODS: We analyzed current respiratory health symptoms and CO exposures upon enrollment in a subset (n = 840) of the population of pregnant women cooking with biomass fuels and enrolled in the GRAPHS randomized clinical control trial. Personal CO was measured using Lascar continuous monitors. Associations between CO concentrations as well as other sources of pollution exposures and respiratory health symptoms were estimated using logistic regression models. CONCLUSION: There was a positive association between CO exposure per 1 ppm increase and a composite respiratory symptom score of current cough (lasting >5 days), wheeze and/or dyspnea (OR: 1.2, p = 0.03). CO was also positively associated with wheeze (OR: 1.3, p = 0.05), phlegm (OR: 1.2, p = 0.08) and reported clinic visit for respiratory infection in past 4 weeks (OR: 1.2, p = 0.09). Multivariate models showed significant associations between second-hand tobacco smoke and a composite outcome (OR: 2.1, p 5 days (OR: 3.1, p = 0.01), wheeze (OR: 2.7, p < 0.01) and dyspnea (OR: 2.2, p = 0.01). Other covariates found to be significantly associated with respiratory outcomes include involvement in charcoal production business and dyspnea, and involvement in burning grass/field and wheeze. Results suggest that exposure to HAP increases the risk of adverse respiratory symptoms among pregnant women using biomass fuels for cooking in rural Ghana

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO