How can we lower the carbon footprint of Swiss electricity consumption? The country is reliant on imported electricity from fossil-fuel power facilities, which are substantial contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
A group of researchers from the University Of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) investigated potential scenarios for lowering Switzerland’s carbon footprint associated with energy usage. To do this while meeting future electrification needs, the author suggests, in addition to importing electricity, implementing a domestic generation mix of wind and photovoltaic energy. All of this is accomplished without the need of nuclear energy. Switzerland could lower its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent under this scenario. Energy Policy contains these findings.
The rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is one of the primary causes of global warming. A major amount of these gases are produced by fossil fuel power plants that generate electricity. It is estimated that these power plants account for one-quarter of all GHG emissions in Europe. In Switzerland, where electricity is mostly generated by nuclear and hydroelectric power facilities, this generation accounts for 2% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Our study’s strength is in the use of hourly values, which are far more exact. This production’s direct and indirect footprints were both combined. We considered the carbon footprint created, for example, by the manufacturing of concrete used in the construction of a power plant.
Elliot Romano
However, it is frequently economically advantageous to sell and export portions of the generated energy to neighboring countries. As a result, Switzerland likewise relies on imports to meet its demands. This accounts for 11% of total electricity use. As a result, the electricity comes from power plants that are particularly “carbon intensive.” A scientific team from UNIGE and Empa created numerous energy scenarios and determined the optimal approach to decarbonize Switzerland. This entails lowering the country’s reliance on primary energy sources that create greenhouse emissions.
“We created seven distinct scenarios that use varied amounts of solar, wind, and hydro electric generation. All of this with and without the use of nuclear power, as Switzerland plans a progressive withdrawal from this way of production by 2050” Elliot Romano, a senior scientist at the UNIGE Faculty of Science’s F.-A. Forel Department of Environmental and Water Sciences, says. The researchers also considered the possibility of supply from abroad, which is required to meet demand, as well as the population’s urge for electrification of mobility and heating.
Reduced imports
Following an examination of the various choices, the study team found that a combination of solar and wind generating would be the best scenario. “This blend is not just the most efficient approach to minimize the country’s footprint, but it is also the best alternative to nuclear power,” says Martin Rüdisüli, the study’s first author and a researcher at Empa’s Urban Energy Systems Laboratory. The model assumes a huge wind power output of 12 TWh and a solar power output of 25 TWh. In Switzerland, solar power will generate 2.72 TWh and wind power 0.13 TWh in 2021, respectively. The proposed production mix reduces the import requirement from 16 TWh to 13.7 TWh when compared to a nuclear power alternative.
This scenario, on the other hand, would raise the carbon footprint of consumption from 89g of CO2 per kWh in 2018 to 131g of CO2 per kWh in the future, taking into consideration future electricity needs connected to electric mobility and thermal needs of buildings. However, electrifying these demands as a whole would lower Switzerland’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent. The researchers also demonstrated that the current storage facilities would only be able to manage a portion of the summer electricity surpluses caused by the huge capacity of the photovoltaic power plants in operation at the time.
Unprecedentedly accurate data
“Until date, research on the environmental impact of power production has relied on average consumption figures, particularly annual figures. Our study’s strength is in the use of hourly values, which are far more exact” Elliot Romano explains. This production’s direct and indirect footprints were both combined. “We considered the carbon footprint created, for example, by the manufacturing of concrete used in the construction of a power plant. As a result of this strategy, we were able to conduct a full examination of the life cycle of power production.”
This method, together with the extraordinary precision of the data, provides solid instructions for Switzerland’s energy plan in 2050. It also paves the path for fresh scientific research.
