Solar-powered plane makes first intercontinental flight, must pass over Pyrenees
Solar Impulse made its first international flight in November 2011, to Paris
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse, the elegant airplane powered only by solar cells, left Payerne shortly before 08:30 Thursday 24 May, and headed towards the Jura and into France.
Pilot André Borschberg expects to land this evening, after midnight, at Madrid Barajas Airport where the plane will have a three-day technical check before flying on to Rabat in Morocco, 28 May at the earliest, for its first intercontinental flight.
By 10:00 the plane was flying at 3,880 metres, at close to 100kph.
The flight can be followed live.
Panel at FT Lausanne commodities conference predicts continuing high oil prices
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The United States is where the world’s next economic and industrial boom may occur, says Daniel Jaeggi, co-founder of Geneva-based energy trading firm Mercuria.
Jaeggi was speaking at a two-day commodities conference in Lausanne 24 April. His privately held firm trades approximately one million barrels of crude oil a day. Jaeggi encouraged investors to look at the US for the start of a new “industrial renaissance” driven by factors including the cheapest energy resources, such as oil, gas and coal, cheap and flexible labour, and a “positive population dynamic, which certainly cannot be said for Europe”.
“We have had the BRIC story since 2001, and by now you would’ve had to have been asleep for the past decade not to know what BRIC stands for”, he told GenevaLunch, referring to rapidly developing economies Brazil, Russia, India and China. “Some tectonic plates are shifting and certain things are changing. The story of the West is that the industrial manufacturing base disappearing from the West has been going on since the 1970s. You can now ask yourself seriously if we are not at the dawn of something very significant.”
Europe’s outlook negative, oil prices to remain high, say traders
A panel of energy trading executives generally agreed on a negative economic forecast for Europe at the Financial Times conference. The panel: Glencore chief of oil Alex Beard, Pierre Barbé, president at Total Oil Trading and Törbjörn Törnqvist, chairman of Gunvor.
Top oil traders handed consumers gloomy news, telling the conference that three-digit prices for oil are here to stay. The price of Brent oil, the benchmark crude, by April had remained above $100 a barrel for a record 200 consecutive days. And oil traders don’t see it slipping, thanks to growing demand and continuing tight supplies.
Ten years ago the price of Brent was $20 a barrel.
The US Department of Energy, in a 2011 report called “What drives the price of crude oil” includes the activities of the financial markets in its seven key factors.
Muehleberg peaceful anti-nuclear protest, ©2011 Herbi Ditl on flickr
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Department of Environment, Transport and Energy (Detec) is asking the Swiss supreme court to rule on the closing of the Muehleberg nuclear power plant, it said Wednesday evening 21 March.
The Federal Administrative Court ruled two weeks ago that the plant must be closed, a ruling at odds with a 2011 review of the plant’s viability for remaining in operation until its license runs out.
The government says critical questions about the competence and the tasks of the judges in making the decision as well as questions being asked by the public make it imperative that the issue be resolved quickly, for the sake of the country’s energy programme.
A decision was made by the government in May 2011 to ban future nuclear plant construction, efffectively ending Switzerland’s nuclear energy programme. The government said in November 2011 that it will cost about CHF2 billion to shut down all five Swiss nuclear power plants, and that after reviewing their safety levels, it had decided they could continue operating until their licenses run out.
Muehleberg in particular, in Bern, has been the site of a number of protests. Its owners, BKW, said 14 March they would take the administrative tribunal decision to the higher court and 20 March it said that the board of directors “assumes that the plant will not continue to operate beyond 2022″, repeating its contention that shutting the plant down “prematurely … would entail significant financial and technical implications.”
Emissions created by traffic in Switzerland have risen, not fallen
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland is turning to energy certificates from outside the country to make its CO2 quota for 2008-2012, and environmental group WWF is not happy about it.
The Swiss Federal Council announced Tuesday 17 January that it is signing a new contract with the Climate Cent Foundation to increase its engagement by one ton. The foundation as a result will be reducing CO2 by a total of 5 tons, allowing Switzerland to meet Kyoto objectives by financing CO2 reduction projects outside the country. The WWF reacted angrily, with energy and climate director Patrick Hofstetter calling the federal energy reduction plan “a disaster from start to finish” and qualifying the government’s new move as “maddening, dishonest and incomprehensible”.
Bern notes that without the new agreement Switzerland would not meet its objectives, mainly as a result of increased traffic: statistics for 2010 show CO2 from traffic at 12.9 percent above figures for 1990, when Switzerland is committed to decreasing this by 8 percent.
For the WWF, the move means that Switzerland is not only not meeting emission reduction goals because Bern is not applying the law, but it is also not respecting the spirit of Kyoto by buying more certificates than are authorized. In addition, argues the WWF, important sums are being spent abroad, using money that could be applied to reducing CO2 at home and to reducing Swiss dependence on oil, while creating jobs.
Patrick Aebischer, president of EPFL and Jacques Melly, president of the Valais cantonal council, sign an agreement of understanding 10 January to set up a branch of the polytechnic in Valais
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s federal polytechnic institute, EPFL and canton Valais signed an agreement of intention Tuesday 10 January in Sion to establish a branch of the school in canton Valais, most likely in Sion but working closely with a number of existing services throughout the canton.
A formal agreement and plans will be developed later in the year, but EPFL President Patrick Aebischer is quoted by Le Nouvelliste as saying the new campus should be up and running by 2015.
The new branch of EPFL will have have 11 research and training chairs, the canton and EPFL announced at a press conference Tuesday.
Valais will have a teaching campus that focuses on energy, health and chemistry, according to Le Nouvelliste, with seven chairs in energy and the rest in bio-technology and bio-engineering, while Le Temps reports that four chairs will be in energy and the others in biotechnology and medical engineering.
EPFL has not yet issued a press release confirming details but Valais, for its part, says the focus will be on energy, health (with a focus on rehabilitation) and nutrition and the new school should help attract international companies. Nutrition studies would centre around work to produce components for vitamins and medicines.
A masters degree in energy is being planned.
EPFL is based in Lausanne but has a small campus in Neuchatel for nanotechnology.
Geneva's Escalade, with energy-efficient Christmas lights in 2011 (photo Mr Kio on flickr)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva was one of the top winners in the sixth annual Swiss government Watt d’Or programme to recognize energy-saving initiatives.
It was honoured 4 January as the winner of the energy technologies category for its new LED strings of lights along the Lake Geneva waterfront.
The waterfront area has been lit up for more than 100 years, but with incandescent lighting and with new energy regulations calling for the end of this kind of lighting in 2012 the city had to scramble to find another solution. It worked to develop a “revolutionary” LED lighting system that looks like incandescent lights, but uses far less energy, the awards committee announced. Geneva in November 2010 replaced 4200 bulbs with LED light strings that were awarded a prize at the Salon des inventions de Genève. The light is as strong as with the bulbs, but energy consumption has been reduced by 90 percent.
Zermatt was another top winner, for its new rubbish disposal system, and St Gallen was given the top prize for its overall urban development and energy use system, with a new geothermal centre going into operation in 2013.
Photo: ©2009 WWF/Klein Hubet
BERN, SWITZERLAND – WWF Switzerland is counting two environmental battles won this week. Its fight to see Valais respect the Bern International Treaty that covers the protection of wolves, an endangered species, resulted in a decision by the Sion district tribunal 13 December to condemn former cantonal councilor Jean-René Fournier to 60 days community service, with the sentence suspended.
Fournier is no longer in the cantonal government but represents Valais in the upper house of the Swiss parliament.
Valais should start adding shepherds, dogs to sheep herds, says WWF
The decision relates to the 2006 death of a wolf that had killed 30 sheep in Valais. Fournier approved the permit to shoot the animal and after its death he stuffed it and had it on display in his office, despite the international ban to which Switzerland is party.
Insurance was 8.4% in 2009, but cost has risen for past 2 years
Sausage, roesti and great local wine in St Gallen in late October: the Swiss spent CHF460 a month on average of their household budget dining out in 2009, but this includes work canteens and cafeterias as well as restaurants
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Average disposable household income in Switzerland in 2009 was CHF6,650 a month, with 13 percent of that, CHF1,185, going for food, beverages and restaurants. Housing and energy together made up the largest household budget item, CHF1,495 a month.
Transport used up 7.7 percent of the budgets and entertainment 6.7 percent. Clothing: 2.4 percent.
Households were left with, on average, savings of CHF1,160 after all expenses were deducted.
Taxes consumed on average CHF1,125 a month, some 12 percent, or less than what a household spent on food and beverages.
But taxes are only one part of Swiss mandatory expenses, which also include social security payments:
- 10 percent of disposable income that includes AVS and company pension plans (the Swiss first and second pillars)
- the mandatory part of the health insurance system (5 percent)
- and money sent to other households, for example as part of a divorce settlement (2 percent).
These mandatory expenses together with taxes account for 29 percent of household budgets, some CHF2,720 a month.
In addition, the Swiss in 2009 spent 3.4 percent on health insurance not covered by the basic, obligatory plans.
The figures were published by the Swiss Statistical Office Tuesday 15 November.
The office notes three important points: 58 percent of all households had lower revenue than the average, 39 percent had at least two people contributing to the revenue, and revenue here includes salaries but also social security income, pension payouts, interest payments, dividends, income from fortunes and money from other households (notably divorce settlements).
Electric scooters soon for the Swiss post - Photo La Poste Suisse
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Post buildings and vehicles are about to shift firmly into ecology gear, with the group’s announcement that all of its letter delivery scooters will soon be electric and 20 of its premises will see photovoltaic systems installed on their rooftops.
The group has until now relied on hydroelectric and wind power.
The national postal system said Thursday 22 September that the moves are part of its “pro clima” programme effort to reduce CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons by 2013, compared to 2010, and to explore “other avenues” for energy sources without sacrificing economic viability.
The fleet of 7,500 scooters used for mail delivery will be replaced with electric models as each one wears out, so that by 2016 at the latest the entire fleet will be electric, using renewable energy sources.
The photovoltaic systems on its business premises will produce 6,000MWh a year, enough to cover 4 percent of Swiss Post’s electricity needs. The installation cost is CHF39 million, with the first system at Zurich-Muelligan, spanning 26,000m2, in an “advanced stage”.
Swiss Post’s CO2 reduction programme includes several other measures:
- Drivers of large delivery vehicles will be trained to use the Eco-drive method, already in use by PostBus drivers who have reduced their energy consumption by 3 percent.
- 140 gas-powered delivery and business vehicles are being converted to 100 percent biogas.
- Swiss Post is buying another 10 hybrid buses, which use 20-30 percent less energy than traditional buses.
- The group is setting up a number of sharing stations for employees, with electric cars and e-bikes.
WWF shines a light on the new bulbs, with old ones disappearing next year
Photo: WWF
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The WWF conservation group is giving us a helping hand four months before the shock sets in of discovering you can’t just replace your old light bulb with the same thing. Switzerland in the autumn of 2012 will bury its incandescent lights and replace them with LED ones that consume seven times less energy for the same amount of luminosity and other energy-efficient products.
Only 5 percent of the energy transformed by traditional incandescent lights goes into light. The rest simply dissipates as heat.
The Swiss consume 8.2 billion kilowatt hours a year and, says WWF, this could be cut in half “and thus avoiding the need for the Muehleberg nuclear power plant”.
WWF is publishing a guide this week to the pros and cons of the new lighting technology, called “Lumière” in French (available in French and German). It evaluates lighting products already on the market and compares their energy efficiency, using a visual stop-and-go system of red to green.
The group’s recommendations:
- buy LED, fluorescent or energy efficient lights, keeping in mind that while the latter are more expensive than today’s incandescent lights, their lifespan of 30,000 hours is twice that of our old bulbs
- when buying lighting systems, buy only systems that use the new lightbulbs/tubes (TopTen is a consumer product comparison site)
- avoid classic spots and halogen lamps, which are barely more efficient than incandescent lighting
- eco-halogen as well is lighting that makes little real improvement.
The brochure is available online and can also be consulted while shopping, via smartphone (“Guide WWF”)
Download French version of Factsheet on lights and lighting
Hydroelectric power plant in canton Valais, Switzerland
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s production of energy from renewable sources rose in 2010, new figures from the Federal Energy Office 30 June show.
Electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric power (without accumulation pumps consumption), rose by 1.2 percent for a total of 36.4 billion kWh.
Nuclear power plants currently provide 39.3 percent of the country’s energy, hydroelectric and dams 55.8 percent (TSR has several charts on Swiss energy).
Nuclear power is being phased out after the government voted last month to end it use.
Swiss scenery would be improved without power lines, argues HTST, which is considering a popular initiative
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Several groups have fought power lines in Switzerland over the years, arguing against them for esthetic reasons, particularly in tourist areas. Now, as a group in canton Valais is about to present a feasibility study showing that the lines can be effectively buried underground, a popular initiative to require their removal is underway, reports RSR.
A new organization, HTST, is discussing the option of a popular initiative with various partners, according to RSR, which could get underway by the end of 2011 and 2012, to put the issue to a national vote. The group argues that power lines waste energy, are a danger to the population’s health, and ruin the countryside.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Five years of Chinese-Russian talks and the promise of a nearly done deal were not enough to put ink on paper and seal what would be “one of the largest energy deals in history” worth billions of dollars, as the Moscow Times puts it. The two appeared so close to agreement that it was to be at the centre of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which ended 18 June, and a four-day visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Moscow.
Officials from both sides are now saying more talks are needed. Russia’s “Gazprom sold pipeline gas to Europe in the first half of 2011 for an average of $346 per 1,000 cubic meters and may raise the price for long-term contracts to $500 per 1,000 cubic meters by December on the back of high oil prices. China is seeking a discount on the price at which Gazprom sells gas to its European customers”, reports the Moscow Times.
Bloomberg quotes the head of Gazprom, interviewed last week, as saying a deal should still be feasible in 2011.
Flexible thin film CIGS solar cell on polymer substrate developed at Empa (©2011 Empa)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A “major step forward” in the ability to produce cheap and efficient solar energy cells has been made by a team at Empa (Swiss Materials Science & Technology Academy), which has set a new world record of 18.7 percent for energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide, also known as CIGS.
Researchers are racing to develop a low-cost solar cell, which is both highly efficient and easy to manufacture with high throughput (execution efficiency), which would make it suitable for large-scale use.
New results could mean cheap solar electricity “in the near future”
Ayodhya Tiwari, who is leading the Empa team, says the new record value “nearly closes the ‘efficiency gap’ to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon (Si) wafers or CIGS thin film cells on glass”. Tiwari argues that “flexible and lightweight CIGS solar cells with efficiencies comparable to the best-in-class will have excellent potential to bring about a paradigm shift and to enable low-cost solar electricity in the near future.”
His team achieved the previous world record for energy conversion efficiency of the cells, 17.6 percent, in June 2010. The measurements have been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.
The cells offer cost benefits, starting with the possibility of using them in lower-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing processes for making electronic devices. The lightweight and flexible solar units could also reduce transportation and installation costs.
Solar panels are being tested in a solar park on top of the EPFL polytechnic institute in Lausanne, by Romande Energie, one part of a Swiss push to develop solar power
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar panels have the potential to supply far more home heating, including heating water, than previously thought, a new Swiss study shows. “Home heating that relies entirely on renewable energy, leaving untouched the limited biomass potential, is on our doorstep,” an Energy Office statement on the study notes.
Homes in rural areas could have 75 percent of their home’s heating requirements taken care of by solar panels, using wood to make up the difference, the study mandated by the Swiss Federal Energy Office concludes, based on a review of 1,000 homes in the Fribourg area.
Solar energy could supply 13 percent of home heating needs in urban areas, based on a study of some 200 homes in Zurich. The difference is due in large part to the tendency to have several floors in city buildings, rarely the case in rural areas.
Two types of houses were taken into consideration:
- the first a standard home today, eight litres with a 104kWh/m2 consumption = 8 litres heating oil for ambient temperature and 24kWh for hot water
- the second in line with recent energy standards, three litres, with a consumption of 54 kWh/m2 = 3 litres heating oil, 24 kWh for hot water.
Each of these was studied with two options, either a 100-litre thermal accumulator/m2 of solar panel or an optimized thermal accumulator, which will soon be available, thanks to technological progress.
Swiss solar project boat crosses Atlantic in 61 days using solar-only power
Webcam shot from the cockpit of Ms Turanor PlanetSolar, 5 December 2010, shortly before Mexico
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ms Turanor PlanetSolar landed in Cancun, Mexico Tuesday 6 December, home this week to the first major world climate conference after Copenhagen in December 2009.
It was a day later than expected due to strong winds, but the boat and its team of six crossed the Atlantic using only solar power.
The Yverdon-based project has the support of the Swiss government, which is participating in Cancun.
Public referendum in 2013 likely
The French and Swiss power grids: multiple electricity sources include nuclear power
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three requests to build new nuclear power stations, on the site of existing ones, have passed their first hurdle, with the Federal Nuclear Safety Commission saying the sites meet legal and other requirements. The commission will now study the applications, the first in a series of approval stages that is expected to take three years. The three sites are in Muehleberg, canton Bern, Goesgen, canton Solothurn and Beznau, Aargau. The requests to build were filed by Forces motrices bernoises (FMB) for Muehleberg, Axpo for Beznau and Alpiq for Goesgen.
The commission has asked the three project owners to supply more information, in particular details concerning earthquake, landslide and flooding risks, as well as the financial profitability of the operations.
The price of oil 13 September is at a one-month high, at $77.24, and traders say it could reach $80 by the end of the week because of interruptions to supplies from western Canada. A leak in a pipeline near Chicago run by Enbridge Energy last week forced the closure of the pipeline for repairs. The damaged pipeline was shipping 459,000 barrels per day when it was closed.
Traders say US oil stocks are down from last week, although at almost 360 million barrels there is no reason to fear a shortage. Stocks are almost seven percent higher than they were last year. Gasoline prices in some areas have jumped more than $0.30 per US gallon.
Links to other sites: AP, Reuters, US Dept of Energy
Zero Emissios race three-wheeler
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Eight people, 11 wheels, four countries, 80 days and unmeasurable amounts of sunlight: add it up and you arrive at Zero, the name of the solar race around the world that left Geneva early Monday afternoon 16 August.
The group includes a jeep, a three-wheeled electric car, a motorbike and a scooter, all of which could be mass-marketed cheaply, say their teams of drivers.
Getting that point across to manufacturers in order to cut back sharply on motor pollution around the world is part of the rationale behind the race.
Zero Emissions race two-wheeler
Louis Palmer, Swiss pioneer of green technology who in 2007-08 drove a solar-powered car 54,000 km across 38 countries, was at the UN in Geneva to send off three of the four teams from South Korea, Australia, Switzerland and Germany.
The fourth crew, the Korean team, joined the others in Lausanne, after it had technical problems in the Swiss Alps over the weekend.
Palmer, who organized the race, told journalists that the race “is about showing realistic ways towards a cleaner and greener future for the planet and its people.” The drivers will be cooperating rather than competing: the race is against time rather than each other, to see if they can make it through 16 countries around the globe in 80 days.
Driving on $5 a day, around the world
Zerotracer in the countryside
The drivers will need to recharge their vehicles every 250 km, at a cost of about $5 a day, but they have already compensated for this by generating clean energy (solar, wind, tide-powerd) and putting it into their local power grids.
The two-person teams will be back in Geneva in January 2011 after covering 30,000 km.
Their journey will take them Geneva to Lausanne, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, then across Kazakhstan and Central Asia to Shanghai.
From China they will ship out to Vancouver, Canada.
Zero Emissions race jeep
The next leg of the journey will take them down the west coast of the US, across Mexico to Cancun, arriving on time for a United Nations climate change conference in late November 29.
From Mexico they will cross to Portugal and continue on through southern Europe.
Working with nature to balance the fuel budget
A petrol-powered backup vehicle will accompany them. It, too, has compensated for its fuel use, as have other fuel “costs”: emissions for bringing the cars to Geneva, shipping them overseas twice, putting the drivers up in hotels. Julianne Priskin, who is the race coordinator and environmental adviser, says she will be running daily tallies of these expenditures to ensure these energy costs are covered.
Zero Emissions race web site and current positions (continually updated)
Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland's Socialist minister for the environment, energy, transport, resigns
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Moritz Leuenberger, Socialist Party member who has been one of Switzerland’s seven federal councillors for the past 15 years, announced Friday morning that he will step down at the end of 2010. Leuenberger, 63, from Zurich, has headed one department, the Detec (environment, transport and energy) during his tenure and his left-leaning views have had a significant impact on the country’s approach to climate change.
He insisted in a press conference that journalists should not seek to find tactical reasons, that after 15 years as part of the government, he feels the time has come to leave. Leuenberger was scheduled to be the next president, taking up the post that rotates among the federal councillors in January 2011. Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist, from Geneva, will now become president in 2011, for the second time.
Forest, cenral Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s forests are growing rather than shrinking, and they could provide as much as 50 percent of the country’s renewable sources of energy by 2025. A new government reports notes that wood for energy use today could double, from 3.5 percent of all energy sources to 7 percent.
The price of wood is expected to climb by 2025, to 30 percent above the price in 2005. Wood is traded on a free market.
Switzerland, like the rest of Europe, has followed for a number of years a policy of not consuming more wood than it produces.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “Ready for collision” said the screen at Cern (European Nuclear Research Organization) shortly after 08:30. The first attempt at 7 TeV collisions of two 3.5 TeV beams, about three to four times the collisions currently done at the Fermilab in the US, is expected to occur around 10:30 this morning.
A beam was lost around 06:00 this morning, but was recovered fairly quickly. The beams are now circulating in their pipes but a collision in advance of the planned schedule is avoided by keeping them magnetically separated. The mood in the control centre is upbeat and excited although given the complexity of the task, it could be hours before a collision occurs.
- Watch the webcast live.
- Background, GenevaLunch
- Cern LHC pages
Cern operations group leader Mike Lamont (foreground) and LHC engineer in charge Alick Macpherson in the Cern control centre 19 March
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two 3.5 TeV proton beams successfully circulated in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern for the first time Friday morning 19 March, shortly after 05:20, a key step in ramping up the LHC for 7 TeV collisions, whose data will be fed to a series of physics research projects around the world.
Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) says this is the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator.
Hydroelectric station, canton Valais, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Electricity price increases announced in 2009 by several suppliers were provisionally rejected in July 2009 by Bern as unnecessarily high, and Monday 8 March the federal electricity commission confirmed this. The commission’s report says that the increases were based on costs that were over-estimated in some cases and unacceptable inefficiency in other cases. The energy companies have the right to appeal, but if they do not the rate hikes will have to be abandoned.
The companies concerned are: Alpiq, BKW, Axpo (Axpo AG, CKW, EGL), EWZ and Rätia Energie, along with a number of smaller firms.
Wind turbine, Switzerland
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Canton Vaud will have 10 additional wind turbines on a third site, by 2014, Romande Energie announced Friday 5 March. The communes of Longirod and Marchissy, at the foot of the Jura, have agreed to their construction, as have the landowners. The wind energy produced by the mills will supply electricity to some 10,000 households. The cost to build them: CHF60 million.
Romande Energie has set a target to have 10 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources by 2020-2025, the company notes.
Links to other sites: Longirod, Romande Energy, Swiss federal department of energy on wind energy
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.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Seven top executives of Foster Wheeler, a major producer of power plants and refineries, are to move from Perryville, New Jersey to Geneva, Switzerland in order to be closer to the company’s markets. The company is domiciled in Zug, Switzerland, and employs 14,000 people worldwide.
The AltaRock Energy project in California, north of San Francisco, to drill deep into the Earth’s bedrock and use the heat released as a renewable energy source, was abandoned Friday 11 December. The project has been seen as a key part of the Obama administration’s efforts to find alternative energy supplies. The move comes just a day after Switzerland’s geothermal project in Basel was shut down permanently, following earthquakes at the site in 2006 and early 2007.
Links to other sites: Alta Rock, New York Times
Discreet Swiss hotel windows are sometimes a good minibar substitute
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 55,000 mini-bars in Swiss hotels consume far more energy than the average home refrigerator for a family of four, some 24 million kW hours in a year. The heart of the problem is the sad news for hotel clients who love drinks in their rooms that a 40-litre minibar consumes 0.9 kW/h versus the 0.24 that a 150-litre refrigerator uses.
Title: Global Challenges at the Intersection of Trade, Energy and the Environment — Graduate Institute and WTO
Location: World Trade Organisation, Room CR1, 154, rue de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland
Link out: Click here
Description: Series of conferences organized by the Graduate Institute and WTO on the intersection between trade, energy and the environment
Start Date: 22 Oct 2009
Start Time: 9:15
End Date: 23 Oct 2009
Obligatory registration by Monday, 19 October. Please send an email to souda.tandara@wto.org.
Conference is free.
