Underestimated the Federal the risks of the nuclear phase-out by the voters three years ago approved? The Federal electricity Commission (Elcom) comes to the conclusion that without the two large nuclear power plants in Gösgen and leibstadt, bottlenecks in the power supply significantly more likely to be. This is especially true for the winter half of the year, so for the time in Switzerland is now dependent on imports of electricity.

The guardian about the Swiss electricity supply, it shall submit to the Federal Council in a new policy paper now proposals for measures to eliminate the risk as much as possible. The Elcom is proposing to increase by 2035, the winter electricity production in Germany to at least 5 terawatt hours. To put this into perspective, Switzerland is consumed in 2018, about 58 terawatt-hours of electricity. The time of publication, is no coincidence. Currently, the power law is in Revision.

The Elcom is confident that in the next 15 to 25 years, 14 terawatt hours of winter electricity production are eliminated – depending on when the four remaining nuclear power plants Beznau I and II and Gösgen and leibstadt will go from the network. Together with the Winter average Import of the past few years, this results in a gap of 17 terawatt hours. The required Expansion to 5 terawatt succeed in hours, would it still be their 12.

incentives for Development are inadequate

Now, the experience from the Winter of 2016/17 shows, according to the Elcom, however, that in case of a need for imports of "only" 10 terawatt hours of "the Situation at times very tense can be", when at the same time, the ability to export to the neighboring countries is limited. With this scenario, Elcom anticipates that in the future, since in particular, Germany wants to 2022, the whole of the use of nuclear energy and to 2038 from the coal-fired power generation to get off and also France is in it, at least a part of the NUCLEAR Park to shut down.

domestic production must rise, but the incentives for the Expansion of winter power production "are hardly sufficient", as the Elcom complained. The Federal Council wants to introduce a so-called strategic Reserve as a fixed Element in the Swiss electricity market. This measure aims only to ensure the security of supply in the short-term and short-term supply shortages to maintain. In contrast, the Elcom is to ensure your proposal is a durable adequate in-house production in the winter half of the year.

The supervision in Switzerland the potential to reach the goal. By 2035, it should be possible to generate in the Winter of 8.5 to 13.6 terawatt hours in winter, electricity in addition to, most of it with PV, followed by Wind and Small - and Large-scale hydropower. However, according to the Elcom, sums up the potential of available renewable energy sources could "with the current economic conditions," not fully penetrate. The funds are limited, the prices on the wholesale markets is low, resulting in very significant investment in the production more difficult. Ultimately, says Elcom, whether it be a political question of risk assessment, how high is the internal power supply is supposed to be.

solar systems optimize

The analysis of the Elcom is in line with that of Swiss clean tech. In an internal working paper, the present of this newspaper, writes the industry Association that after the Shutdown of the nuclear power plants demand and production will not be especially in the Winter, in the balance: "This increases the risk of Blackouts." Swiss clean-tech, therefore, proposes a binding path of Expansion for the winter production with renewable energies.

the Question, specifically, in solar energy: Depending on the altitude and geographical orientation of a photovoltaic system can be realized in the winter months, more than 40 percent of their annual production. An optimized winter production is possible, for example, with installations in the open land in the Alps, on facades or flat roofs with two perpendicular double-sided modules.

"We doubt that a exclusive remuneration of the winter electricity production creates sufficient incentives for the Expansion."David stickelberger, managing Director of the industry Association Swissolar

The proposal of Swiss clean tech is the politically spicy, because it runs on a paradigm change: For years, the state of solar power promotes, regardless of what time of year this produced. It is intended to support only the production in the Winter financially. This goes significantly further than the recent claim from the policy: The environmental Commission of the national Council proposes to increase the one-off payment for large PV plants without self-consumption, such as on the barn roofs.

The solar industry is in the proposal of the Association is an interesting approach. "We doubt, however, that an exclusive remuneration of the winter electricity production creates sufficient incentives for the necessary Expansion of Photovoltaics", says David stickelberger, managing Director of the industry Association Swissolar.

The Association sees the solution primarily in a massive Expansion of "normal" PV plants, approximately to One - family and multi-family houses, industrial buildings, or barn roofs. In this area, so Stickelberger, one could build optimized for aesthetic and construction reasons, only a rare "winter".

Created: 07.03.2020, 13:30 PM