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The Swiss solar express is in danger of slowing down in Valais today. After all, in the southern canton of all places, it was Beat Rieder (60, Die Mitte) of the Council of States of Valais who pushed the 2022 emergency law through parliament in record speed. In this way, large-scale solar energy systems can be installed in the Alpine region. And these are heavily subsidized. But only if large power plants come online with at least ten percent of their production by the end of 2025. Target of solar offensive: Up to 200 solar power plants in the Alps and two terawatt hours of electricity per year. Thus, it is aimed to close the power gap in winter.
Valais also wanted to take the momentum and, above all, the federal government’s solar millions with him. According to State Counselor Roberto Schmidt (61, Die Mitte), ten projects are currently ongoing. But now there may be a blockage. Today the people of Valais vote on the solar energy decree. This provides expedited approval procedures for solar energy systems. In response, the Valais Greens, led by their co-chairman Brigitte Wolf (56), called for a referendum together with environmental protection associations.
If the No side wins at the ballot box, Alpine solar systems will not be banned. However, it is possible that the solar express left Valais without an expedited approval process.
The electricity produced is not wasted
The massive national solar offensive would eventually evolve into a solar reform. A look at the mountain cantons shows that the much-publicized expansion in the mountains is not gaining momentum elsewhere. The targets set by the federal government are in danger of being missed by a wide margin; Even a yes vote in Valais today wouldn’t change much. This is due to political, legal and technical obstacles as well as time pressure. Many launchers cannot keep up with the given pace.
What is particularly annoying is that the Swiss power grid cannot accommodate the desired turbo expansion. The parliament accelerated the construction of solar power plants with the emergency law, but forgot to expand the grid capacity. Therefore, the huge Grengiols and Vispertal plants in Valais had to be greatly reduced in size. The electricity produced by the planned huge solar energy fields could not be directed in any way.
The canton of Bern did not make this mistake. Here, instead of dreaming of huge solar fields in the Alps, the existing electricity grid was first analyzed. The canton, together with network operator BKW, has set an upper limit for new systems: additional generation of more than 100 megawatts is not possible because the network cannot accommodate more. This corresponds to an annual electricity production of 150 gigawatt hours.
“Therefore, gigantism is not possible,” says Christoph Ammann (54, SP), the responsible Bern government councillor. During the summer, pioneers prioritized projects in the canton of Bern at roundtables with network operators and environmental protection associations. There were approximately 35 projects in total, of which 17 were withdrawn after rounds of discussion. Ammann expects six to nine Alpine solar power plants to be on the grid by the end of 2025. He sees his own canton in the fast lane in the inter-cantonal race. “Bern is the fastest canton when it comes to the Solar Express,” Ammann said at the launch of the pilot system at Hornberg in Saanenmöser a week ago.
Only part of it will be built by the end of 2025
In fact, Bern’s chosen approach faces significantly less resistance, both politically and from environmental protection associations, than solar turbos in the Valais. This is mainly due to significantly smaller ambitions. If the canton exceeds its own cap, it will build a third of the now-shuttered Mühleberg nuclear power plant in the Alps. But compared to the solar energy potential in the Bernese Alps, this is too little to achieve the ambitious goals of the solar offensive.
“I’m not interested in that,” says Ammann. The federal government’s goals are noble but unrealistic. The assumption that solar express could make up for the winter electricity deficit in the short term was “completely naive”. However, Bern’s governing council praises the courage to think big at the federal level. “This is the right basic attitude. “We need to move away from bean counting and towards a more pioneering spirit when it comes to energy policy.”
It’s similar in Graubinden. “The requirements are so stringent and the schedule so tight that funding may not be fully utilized,” says Tomas Schmid (53), head of the Department for Energy and Transport. However, the process that has been initiated is pleasing: “Construction in the mountains is being approached with an innovative approach and a lot of expert knowledge is being developed. This makes the sector suitable.”
Schmid says he is aware of 15 projects currently being progressed in Graubeğen. Since he knows neither the status nor the quality of the projects, he cannot say anything about their chances of implementation. However, it seems unlikely that more than a handful of systems will be built in Graubinden by the end of 2025.
Member of the National Assembly Jürg Grossen (54) is not surprised that hopes for the solar attack on the Federal Palace are clearly very high. President of Swissolar and GLP Switzerland says: “When I pressed the voting button at the autumn session 2022, I thought: Some people will still experience their blue miracle, it will probably not happen that quickly, even with the best of intentions in the world.”
Even though only a fraction of the targeted 200 systems are likely to be built by the end of 2025, Grossen still doesn’t want to know anything about the failure of the solar blitz. Many promising projects are continuing rapidly. “Sometimes it’s also important to implement big ideas.” Grossen says the expansion of solar energy in the Alps will not be completed after the set deadline, but will continue thanks to the new shell decree. “We will achieve the solar energy targets in the mountains formulated by Parliament in the autumn of 2022, but probably not within the specified time.”
Bern government councilor Christoph Ammann also sees the situation this way. He calls the solar attack “a training procedure.” Ammann says, “We can launch Solar Express 2.0” with the findings obtained here.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
