By Kevin Zgraggen, Noah Siegrist, Kevin Montavon
By Kevin Zgraggen, Noah Siegrist, Kevin Montavon
The average electricity consumption in a detached house with two people in Switzerland is 3,550 kWh/year according to the SFOE (Swiss Federal Office of Energy).
Around 35% - 45% of that elictricity comes from a nuclear power source.
The electricity consumption in Switzerland falls and rises throughout the year. It is clearly visible that more electricity is consumed in the winter than in summer. This is because more heating as well as more lights are used in the winter and the days with sunshine are shorter.
The shorter days lead to a lack of a big portion of the solar electricity being produced in Switzerland.
Therefore other sources of electricity are being used to cover the demand such as nuclear electricity or imported electricity.
The energy in Switzerland is being produced from different sources as well as being imported from other countries.
Electricity production here is divided between various sources. Electricity from nuclear energy still remains one of the largest shares in Switzerland, although countries such as Germany have already withdrawn and withdrawn from nuclear energy.
The difference between consumption and production is imported from other countries such as Germany or France.
This map illustrates the share of nuclear electricity generated in comparison to the total electricity production for each country in Europe.
Switzerland still has a high share of nuclear electricity production, but is planning to phase it out. France is the country with the highest share of nuclear electricity production in Europe.
Several countries have already phased out nuclear electricity, such as Ukraine, Greece, and Portugal. Switzerland should follow their lead but also focus on replacing the lost energy with renewable energy.
Switzerland decided to phase out nuclear energy in 2017.
So there is a lot to change in order to replace nuclear energy with renewable sources.
A majority of 58% voted in favour of the exit.
Investment in renewable energies and energy efficiency.
Complete switch to renewable energy sources by 2050.
The selected solar capacity in Switzerland would be 3.655 GW. This corresponds to 11.8% of the available roof area in Switzerland.
For 0.087 GW of wind power there would have to be 11 wind turbines built. By comparison, there are currently around 12,000 high-voltage pylons in Switzerland.
