Wind turbine, Saint Brais, Jura, Switzerland (photo: ©2010, Suisse Eole)

Update 28 August GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – New wind turbines at Saint-Brais, canton Jura, will raise Switzerland’s total annual renewable energy power production  to 17.5 MW, according to Suisse Eole, the Swiss wind energy promotion association. Switzerland has a limited number of wind turbines, but the Jura wind park is the first in the country to be financed by a broad citizen base: some 600 private investors are behind the two 2 MW turbines. Suisse Eole predicts an increase of 200 MW of power by 2015.

By 2030 wind farming in Switzerland could provide 2.5 percent of the national electricity supply, and by 2050 that figure will jump to 7 percent, the group says.

The figures show the promise of wind production in Switzerland, although newly published international figures indicate that Switzerland is unlikely to match some other European countries’ adoption of wind power.

Wind supplied 4 percent of energy in Europe in 2009 but 39 percent of all new capacity installed was wind, and no other single source of power had that capacity, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) shows in statistics published 4 February: “39% of all new capacity installed in 2009 was wind power, followed by gas (25%) and solar photovoltaics (17%). Europe decommissioned more coal, fuel oil and nuclear capacity than it installed in 2009. Taken together, renewable energy technologies account for 62% of new power generating capacity in 2009.”

Europe last year invested more than euros 13 billion in renewable energy. Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain were the biggest producers of wind energy, according to the new report.

Christian Kjaer, chief executive of EWEA (European Wind and Energy Association) saysthat  ”wind power, together with other renewable energy technologies and a shift from coal to gas, is delivering massive European carbon reductions, while creating much needed economic activity and new jobs for Europe’s citizens.”

Switzerland, like many other nations, is an importer and exporter of several sources of energy including coal, crude oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydro-electric and renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal energy.

The development of wind technologies will enable Switzerland to generate and sell power to an integrated European electricity market, says Suisse Eole. The European Union in December 2008 agreed to an integrated market plan designed to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable energies by 20 percent by 2020. Wind power in Switzerland will also provide incentives for investment and open doors for international trade, the association argues.

The country’s capacity is nevertheless limited, in large part by Switzerland not being “a windy country” swissinfo reports, quoting Sebastien Vogler of Juvent SA, the country’s largest wind power producer.

Links to other sites: EWEA (European Wind Energy Association), Swiss Eole, Swiss federal energy web site,  Wikipedia on wind power

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