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

The potential of electric trucks - an international commodity- level analysis

Development of battery technology is making battery electric heavy duty trucks technically and commercially viable and several manufacturers have introduced battery electric trucks recently. However, the national and sectoral differences in freight transport operations affect the viability of electric trucks. The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology for estimating the potential of electric trucks and demonstrate the results in Switzerland and Finland. Commodity-level analysis of the continuous road freight survey data were carried out in both countries. As much as 71% of Swiss road freight transport tonne-kilometers may be electrified using battery electric trucks but Finland has very limited potential of 35%, due to the use of long and heavy truck-trailer combinations. Within both countries the electrification potential varies considerably between commodities, although in Finland more so than in Switzerland. Commodities which are constrained by payload volume rather than weight and are to large extent carried using medium duty or <26t rigid trucks trucks seem to provide high potential for electrification even with the current technology. Electric trucks increase the annual electricity consumption by only 1–3%, but truck charging is likely to have a large impact on local grids near logistics centres and rest stations along major roads. A spatial analysis by routing the trips reported in the datasets used in this study should be carried out. Future research should also include comparison between the alternate ways of electrifying road freight transport, i.e. batteries with charging, batteries with battery swapping and electrified road systems.ISSN:0306-2619ISSN:1872-911

Anxiety vs reality – Sufficiency of battery electric vehicle range in Switzerland and Finland

Limitations of battery capacity in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) contribute to what is known as range anxiety, and therefore poses an obstacle to their mass-market adoption. While high-range BEVs have been recently introduced, it is not clear whether they will be able to cover all possible trips without long recharging detours, and what the infrastructure needs of those vehicles are. To understand the impact of range limitations in Switzerland and Finland, we constructed a simulation model that is based on representative national travel surveys. We use it to calculate the potential of BEVs to cover any trips and investigate options to increase this coverage. The options discussed in this paper are ways to facilitate easy recharging, such as infrastructure development policies. We complement our results with insights from three focus groups. The results suggest that 85–90% of all national trips could have already been covered with BEVs prevalent in 2016. If the charging station infrastructure is developed appropriately and high-range BEVs are adopted, it is possible to reach a potential coverage of 99% or more in both countries. Deploying charging stations at users’ homes and in residential areas does contribute significantly to this improvement and is desirable from a car user’s perspective. Providing fast-charging stations in other locations is necessary to maximise the potential. We recommend to focus policy efforts on the development of residential charging options and to increase the visibility of electro-mobility using fast-charging stations.ISSN:1361-9209ISSN:1879-234

Water saving potentials and possible trade-offs for future food and energy supply

The sufficient supply of food and energy requires large amounts of fresh water. Mainly required for irrigation, but also processing and cooling purposes, water is one of the essential resources in both sectors. Rising global population numbers and economic development could likely cause an increase in natural resource demand over the coming decades, while at the same time climate change might lead to lower overall water availability. The result could be an increased competition for water resources mainly in water-stressed regions of the world in the future. In this study we explore a set of possible changes in consumption patterns in the agricultural and energy sector that could be primarily motivated by other goals than water conservation measures—for example personal health and climate change mitigation targets, and estimate the indirect effect such trends would have on global water requirements until 2050. Looking at five world regions, we investigated three possible changes regarding future food preferences, and two possible changes in future resource preferences for electricity and transport fuels. We find that while an increase in food supply as a result of higher protein demand would lead to an increase in water demand as well, this trend could be counteracted by other potential dietary shifts such as a reduction in grains and sugars. In the energy sector we find that an increasing water demand can be limited through specific resource and technology choices, while a significant growth of first-generation biofuels would lead to a drastic rise in water demand, potentially exceeding the water requirements for food supply. Looking at the two sectors together, we conclude that an overall increase in water demand for both food and energy is not inevitable and that changes in food and energy preferences could indeed lead to an alleviation of water resource use despite rising population numbers.ISSN:0959-3780ISSN:1872-949

Affect or information? Examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

ISSN:2214-629

Affect or information? : examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

The energy transition in Switzerland, as in many other countries, aims to increase the proportion of electricity produced using renewable energy technologies. In this context, governmental agencies and other institutions have attempted to communicate the implications of (domestic) electricity systems through the use of web-based and interactive decision support systems (DSSs). Studies show that, when no additional information is provided, preferences concerning the future electricity mix are mainly driven by the affective reactions that energy technologies evoke. A question remains, however, regarding how people engage with the information provided in a DSS, as well as whether such information is influential in terms of shaping people’s choices. We asked our participants to build an electricity portfolio using a DSS, which modeled the Swiss electricity system. The participants’ political orientation and their affective reactions to different energy technologies guided their information search, as well as the choice of energy technologies within their portfolio. The attention paid to the information provided was not directly related to the participants’ portfolio choices. The selective processing of information, which was based on the participants’ prior attitudes, suggests that they target information they are already familiar with in the DSS. However, this also illustrates a caveat previously identified in motivated political reasoning, since selective information processing, together with the tendency to disconfirm information that is incongruent with prior beliefs, can lead to the polarization of previously held views. As the information provided through the DSS we tested was unable to change the participants’ affective-cognitive evaluation of energy technologies, its use should be carefully considered in light of the possible effects of consolidating existing beliefs

The importance of stakeholders in scoping risk assessments – lessons from low-carbon transitions

Identifying the risks that could impact a low-carbon transition is a prerequisite to assessing and managing these risks. We systematically characterise risks associated with decarbonisation pathways in fifteen case studies conducted in twelve countries around the world. We find that stakeholders from business, government, NGOs, and others supplied some 40 % of these risk inputs, significantly widening the scope of risks considered by academics and experts. Overall, experts and academics consider more economic risks and assess these with quantitative methods and models, while other stakeholders consider political risks more. To avoid losing sight of risks that cannot be easily quantified and modelled, including some economic risks, impact assessment modelling should be complemented with qualitative research and active stakeholder engagement. A systematic risk elicitation facilitates communication with stakeholders, enables better risk mitigation, and increases the chance of a sustainable transition.ISSN:2210-422