Energy transition ensures security of supply

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The Ukrainian war has exposed the vulnerability of energy systems, including Switzerland. Now nuclear power advocates want to lift the ban on new nuclear power plants – because without nuclear power the security of supply is at risk. “The energy transition failed,” says SVP.

Léonore Hälg (35) from the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES) disagrees: “The opposite is true. Only the promotion of renewable energy sources guarantees security of supply. Nuclear power plants reduce them.” The only fly in the ointment is that Switzerland has not moved the energy transition further in recent years.

shortcomings

Hälg is the author of a new study that shows that with the necessary financial resources, solar power could provide almost five terawatt hours of additional electricity by 2021. Nine additional terawatt hours would result in 2025.

On the other hand, if Switzerland had avoided the energy transition and slowed the expansion of solar power, it would now have two and a half terawatt hours less electricity. By 2025 it would be five terawatt hours less.

In addition to actual generation according to Energy Strategy 2050, Hälg conducted four more scenarios in his study and calculated how much electricity Switzerland could produce in 2021 and 2025. In the first scenario, the energy transition and denuclearization never happened. In the second scenario, there is no nuclear phasing out and the energy transition is limited. In the third and fourth scenarios, the study foresees a forced rollback – first with the rapid shutdown of the nuclear power plant, where the Beznau nuclear power plant will be decommissioned in 2017, and once with a clear phase-out of nuclear power. , which will ensure that Beznau continues to air in 2025.

The result: A forced energy transition with a clear nuclear phase-out would result in peak electricity production in 2021: 69.1 terawatt hours. Actual production at that time was 64.2 terawatt hours. That’s seven percent less, but still more than the other three scenarios.

Nuclear phase-out will bring more electricity

A similar picture emerges for 2025: Continuing the energy transition without change provides 68.7 terawatt hours of efficiency. Without the milestone and nuclear phasing out, it would be 63.8. On the other hand, forced return with rapid deactivation of nuclear power would bring 72.5 terawatt hours, even with nuclear power open-ended it would bring 77.6 terawatt hours. Both variants will result in an increase in annual production of more than nine terawatt hours – more than the annual production of the Gösgen nuclear power plant.

The fourth scenario also shows peak electricity production in the winter half: in 2021 it would be 31.8 terawatt hours – one terawatt hour more than actual generation. By 2025 it would be more than two terawatt hours. This is also remarkable because in 2025 the electric hammer from the EU contains the following threats: Switzerland does not have an electricity agreement with the Union, so from then on electricity imports in winter are no longer guaranteed.

“The study shows that the energy transition has not failed,” says Jürg Rohrer (60), a lecturer in renewable energies at the University of Applied Sciences Zurich and who was not involved in the study. “On the contrary, it’s clear that we would have made much more progress if we moved reverse researchers forward.”

But the study also shows that the rapid abandonment of nuclear power reduces electricity production. “Still, a closure date would be important,” says Rohrer. “This will result in a liability that will accelerate the expansion of renewable energy sources.”

Source :Blick