According to the key figures of the Alpiq Group , the Lausanne-based energy group generated net sales of 1.83 billion francs in the first half of 2020. Compared to the previous semester, this corresponds to a decrease of 18.3 percent. The operating result (EBIT) reported a loss of 70 million francs, compared to a loss of 206 million francs in the first half of 2019. The net result improved from a loss of 206 million to a loss of 84 million francs.
The operating result at the EBITDA level before special items increased from 55 million to 116 million francs year-on-year, said Alpiq in a statement on the half-year results. All three Alpiq divisions contributed to the positive operational development.
Specifically, a result of 37 million francs was achieved in Swiss electricity production, compared to a loss of 56 million francs in the previous semester. International energy trading increased its result year-on-year from CHF 53 million to CHF 58 million. In international electricity production, after 60 million francs in the previous year, a positive result of 24 million francs was achieved “despite the coal phase-out”, writes Alpiq.
The coronavirus pandemic caused electricity prices to fall sharply, especially in April and May, Alpiq said in the press release. The Lausanne group was well protected against this development due to the safeguarding of electricity production for two to three years.
The Basel company Allthings offers a digital platform for tenants, via which they can communicate with property management and roommates, for example. Allthings is now teaming up with the Bern-based company Blockstrom , according to a press release . A solution from Blockstrom for measuring energy consumption in real time will be integrated into the Allthings platform. This means that tenants can also use the platform to track their electricity consumption.
"The interface between the two systems enables an overview of the consumption data in real time," explains David Gundlach, Product Manager at Allthings. “The cooperation with Blockstrom not only creates added value for the tenants, but also allows us to make a contribution to the very relevant topic of sustainability,” he adds.
The joint solution of the two companies is initially being tested as part of a pilot project on the Schöngrün residential area in the canton of Solothurn. There, AXA has converted a former penal institution into a housing estate. The new building with 160 apartments places a high value on sustainability. District heating from the waste incineration plant is used for heating. A solar system on the roof also provides 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The apartments and shops on the site are supplied with solar power as part of an association for self-consumption (ZEV).
A ready-to-use multi-energy management system has evolved from an award-winning product idea from Soleco . It has already been put into operation in two single-family houses in Maur in the canton of Zurich. It will soon also be used in an apartment building there. According to a message from startupticker.ch, talks are currently underway about equipping a district under construction in Zurich.
In the year it was founded, Soleco, together with its partners Geminise and Vela Solaris , won the CSEM Digital Journey Award in the amount of 100,000 francs in 2018. The private and non-profit Swiss Electronics and Microtechnology Research Center ( CSEM ) claims to promote "added value for a sustainable world". CSEM provided Soleco with technological expertise in order to realize their "groundbreaking digital idea".
Together they developed an intelligent and predictive control system. The software intended for laypeople is based on weather forecasts, the available infrastructure, consumption habits of the residents and energy costs on the market. "The platform then functions like a conductor who manages the resources autonomously and reduces costs," the message says.
"All decisions that the control system makes are associated with an optimal cost," explains Tomasz Gorecki, one of the CSEM engineers. "If, for example, the photovoltaic system is in operation, the controller can determine whether it is better to charge your electric vehicle, store the energy or sell it to the grid." The platform works for individual households, but is above all suitable for self-consumption communities that jointly use different renewable energy sources for several apartments.
Energie Zukunft Schweiz and Holzfeuerungen Schweiz ( SFIH ) are promoting wood heating systems with a new climate bonus. This is intended to reward those who replace the fossil fuels oil or gas with local wood. Because, according to a press release , previous funding programs are aimed primarily at small residential buildings and not at industrial and commercial buildings, this premium is aimed at medium-sized and large heating systems.
“Thanks to the generous climate bonus from the funding program and the simple handling of Energy Future Switzerland, this gap has now been closed. And that is the same for the whole of Switzerland, ”says the announcement. This would mean that medium-sized and large wood heating systems would be “not only the most climate-friendly, but also the most economical variant”. Heating with wood protects the climate, promotes local added value and contributes to a healthy forest. This program is regulated by the Federal Office for the Environment ( FOEN ).
The subsidy amounts to 18 cents per kilowatt hour or 1.80 francs per liter of oil or cubic meter of natural gas saved. Energie Zukunft Schweiz calculates that “with correctly dimensioned heating” this corresponds to 360 francs per kilowatt of power. For example, for a block of flats with ten apartments, the investment costs could be reduced by 70 percent. According to Energie Zukunft Schweiz, the savings for large heating systems with an output of more than 200 kilowatts, for example for community buildings, industrial companies and large office buildings, are particularly interesting.
The 350 m2 acoustic Perforated ceiling on the first floor extends from the reception / lobby via the bar until Breakfast area.
As part of the expansion of the Perry Center in Aarburg-Oftringen opened the Holiday Inn Express in early 2020 its sixth location in Switzerland.
The wooden grate ceiling above the dining tables is suspended from the special substructure of the acoustic ceiling, the Megastil® profiles, with threaded rods.
The corridor walls consist of conventional functional masonry with cladding made of plasterboard as fire protection.
The 80 guest rooms are separated by 205 mm thick plasterboard walls, which provide a sound insulation value of 65 dB and thus ensure peace and quiet.
The 3-star hotel offers 80 rooms. It has a breakfast room, a bar and a lounge. Guests can go straight to the Perry Center via a passageway, where they can shop and use the other range of restaurants and meeting rooms. It is primarily aimed at business people who are busy in the region and are looking for accommodation for one or more nights in this central location in terms of transport.
The physical possibilities of dry gypsum construction A hotel must above all meet two requirements: peace and security for its guests. The peace and quiet is made possible not least by the good construction quality, whereby dry gypsum construction systems are in no way inferior to conventional construction methods, on the contrary. In the Holiday Inn Express, among other things, a 350 m2 Rigiton® Ambiance acoustic perforated ceiling by Rigips spans a good five meters over the entire ground floor with reception, lobby, bar as well as breakfast and self-service area. The holes of different sizes (Ø 8, 15 and 20 mm) absorb the sound and provide a pleasant acoustic feeling of space. An elongated wooden slat ceiling that appears to float is built in over the tables in the breakfast room. It is mounted using threaded rods on the Megastil® special profiles from Rigips, which were used to reinforce the ceiling substructure in this section.
Sleep in peace and security The partition walls between the individual rooms consist of double-clad Rigips® double stud walls made of 12.5 mm plasterboard with a wall thickness of 205 mm and a sound insulation value of 65 dB. These constructions are of higher quality and yet more efficient to create than concrete or brick walls. And above all, they can be easily relocated should the spatial requirements change. The corridor walls are optimized in terms of sound and fire protection with cladding made of plasterboard, especially in the area of the shaft walls in which the building services are installed.
Standardized systems with tested performance values Rigips now has a catalog of hundreds of tested standard constructions for walls, ceilings and cladding. Their sound and fire protection, but also static and climatic properties vary depending on the height, structure and possibly the combination of systems with one another. It is therefore advisable to speak to drywall specialists from the earliest planning phase. In the case of larger projects in particular, Rigips' key project management, the consultant for planners and investors, can provide information on energy efficiency, life cycle assessment and moisture protection in addition to the relevant planning parameters for wall, ceiling and floor constructions. All construction variants can be called up in a clear system finder at www.rigips.ch. The systems are without exception in accordance with the applicable standards (EN, SIA) resp. Institutions (EMPA, VKF) tested and certified.
When space requirements change In our fast-paced society, space requirements are constantly changing. This can also be the case in a hotel. In order to remain attractive in the long term, a property must be able to react to changing needs and spatial dimensions. If you invest in a flexible construction method with as few load-bearing elements as possible, a wide variety of needs in the construction of the property, but also changes within the existing building envelope, can be implemented with little cost and time. Rigips® and Alba® drywall systems offer maximum freedom of planning and use. ■
The first apartment building in the canton of Basel to be certified according to the highest Swiss Minergie-A-Eco standard was moved into in 2015. As an investor, Immobilien Basel-Stadt commissioned the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland ( FHNW ) to carry out a study three years ago. This long-term monitoring should clarify whether the demanding energy goals are being achieved and how the house is being accepted by the residents.
The new building at Basel Aescherstrasse 12 includes seven age-appropriate apartments with two and a half and three and a half rooms. According to a media release from Immobilien Basel-Stadt, the team of experts from the FHNW Institute for Energy in Buildings compared the calculated demand values from the planning with the actual consumption values in operation. The survey of the residents showed that the room temperature in most apartments is higher than the standard value from the planning.
Since the house should generate at least as much energy for the Minergie-A certification as is used all year round for heating, cooling and ventilation, it was then examined how the increased room temperatures affect heating energy consumption. The measurement results showed that, on the one hand, the heat pump was “much more efficient than assumed”. "On the other hand, the yield from the photovoltaic system on the roof was significantly higher than planned."
The energy production in the house today also exceeds the total electricity demand on an annual basis. There is potential for optimization through a partial waiver of building automation. This could improve the solar input in winter and night cooling in summer.
"The building concept has proven itself in operation", summarizes Immobilien Basel-Stadt. "The ambitious goals of sustainable building could also be achieved in practice without having to accept compromises in terms of comfort."
Primeo Energie intends to build two wind turbines by 2023 in one of the six wind farm areas that the district administrator identified in the Basel structure plan in 2015. The location is in the Muttenzer Hard between the A2 motorway and the tracks of the Swiss Federal Railways ( SBB ). According to a press release , the electricity provider will be working with the municipality of Muttenz and the canton of Basel-Landschaft .
With an annual output of 4.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity, the new wind turbine could supply an average of 1200 households with ecological energy. Primeo Energie is thus following the guidelines of the federal government's energy strategy and that of the canton of Basel-Landschaft.
"All necessary preliminary investigations" have already been carried out for the construction. "The location of the two turbines is ideal," says the message. The area is not in a landscape protection area. In addition, consumers in industrial and residential areas are close. Therefore, a network connection can be implemented with little effort.
In the trinational region of Basel there are not yet any wind farms except in the Black Forest. Primeo Energie cites the good ecological balance of wind turbines as a further plus point. In addition, they only had a minor impact on flora and fauna.
From September the first high-alpine solar project in Bergell will deliver natural electricity. As the operator Elektrizitätswerke der Stadt Zürich ( ewz ) announced in a press release , most of the more than 1200 photovoltaic (PV) panels have now been installed on the Albigna dam.
For the assembly work, a so-called bridge inspection device was transported to the dam wall with the Albigna cable car. Most of the construction work was carried out by ewz employees from Bergell.
Citizens from Zurich and Graubünden have the opportunity to purchase half, one, three or five square meters of the PV area and thus make a contribution to environmental and climate protection. The public participation model ewz.solarzüri provides that ewz customers are credited 180 kilowatt hours of solar power per square meter per year on their electricity bill. The term is 20 years. The one-off costs per square meter are CHF 560.
From August 14, interested parties can find out more and order panel space on the websites ewz.ch/solargrischun and ewz.ch/solar-für-alle . Until then, these links lead to the current page of ewz.solarzüri.
Previs Vorsorge is responsible for the new development in St.Gallen, according to a media release from the pension fund. The wooden superstructure will consist of two buildings with space for 110 rental apartments. The focus is on future viability and sustainability.
Certified wood and recycled concrete are used as building materials. Since the components are prefabricated, the construction time can also be reduced. It will be possible to move in as early as autumn 2021. There are numerous different apartment sizes available to those interested, from studios to 5.5 rooms.
A roof system contributes solar power, in principle the apartments are supplied with 75 percent renewable energy via district heating. There is a car sharing service available to residents, and they can also charge their electric cars in underground parking spaces. In addition, they can read their personal electricity consumption in real time via a so-called smart home system. A green space will be created between the two buildings, which will contribute to biodiversity with birdhouses and insect hotels.
Interested parties already have the opportunity to view the apartments in advance using VR (virtual reality) glasses.
At the beginning of the year, the Grand Hotel Geneva changed operators: Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, one of the luxury brands from the Accor Group, is taking over from the Kempinski Group. At the same time, the owner, Le Palace Genève SA, announced the extensive renovation of the hotel.
The Geneva 5-star hotel directly on the lake with a view of Mont Blanc is being remodeled by the French star architect Jean Nouvel. With his architecture office, he secured the contract in the context of an international architecture competition. Brigitte Jucker-Diserens' Geneva partner office is coordinating the project. The KKL Luzern, the Lyon Opera, the Galerie Lafayette in Berlin and the national museum in Doha all came from Nouvel's hands. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2008 and has so far created over 200 structures.
Targeting the highest energy efficiency standards The renovation work should begin at the end of 2020 / beginning of 2021, once all permits have been received. One focus of the renovation is on the facade. It should be perfectly integrated into the environment and should be based on the design and materials of the other houses in the bay. The inner courtyard, the public areas and the restaurants are also being renovated. In addition, the hotel should meet the highest energy efficiency standards after the renovation. It is currently being clarified whether a thermal heating solution can be implemented. Then the hotel would be heated and cooled with water from Lake Geneva. This focus on sustainability is in line with the philosophy of the Fairmont brand.
The hotel has 412 rooms, including 33 suites and 14 apartments; three restaurants, a lounge and bar with a view of the lake, a heated indoor pool and a spa and fitness center. The number of rooms will be unchanged after the renovation, as the press officer at Fairmont Hotels & Resort, Philippe Eberhard, announced. The centrally located hotel will remain open during the renovation. According to Eberhard, the costs are likely to amount to tens of millions of francs.
Fairmont's portfolio currently includes 77 hotels in 29 countries, including the GrandHotel Geneva. The Fairmont Le Montreux Palace is also located on Lake Geneva. ■
Only photovoltaics can show Switzerland the way to a CO2-free future, writes the Deputy Director of the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute ( Empa ), Peter Richner, in an article for Avenir Suisse . It is based on the so-called Kaya identity, which the Japanese scientist Yoichi Kaya used in 1993 to describe the total amount of anthropogenic CO2 emissions as a function of four factors. The fourth alone, a reduction in the CO2 footprint, has enough potential, according to Richner, to achieve Switzerland's climate goals – through massive expansion of photovoltaics.
If only 50 percent of all Swiss roofs were equipped with solar modules, electricity production from nuclear power plants would be superfluous. Richner demonstrates this in terms of electricity supply and demand for 2015. However, if all roofs and increasingly also building facades were equipped with solar panels, the output gap in winter could also be compensated for. At the same time, however, solutions would have to be found in order to be able to utilize the largest possible proportion of the electricity surplus in summer, both on a daily basis and at other times of the year.
For increased flexibility of use, day storage systems could shift loads, for example through batteries or hydrogen. Digitization offers opportunities for the necessary creation of flexibility in consumption and production. Excess electricity could be converted into hydrogen in summer and possibly, together with CO2 from the air, into methane or liquid synthetic hydrocarbons. These chemical energy carriers can be stored easily and used in a variety of ways. And finally, seasonal heat storage systems could be charged with excess electricity in order to reduce energy requirements in winter.
The potential of energy efficiency, another influenceable factor of the Kaya identity, is far from being exhausted, says Richner. However, achievements in this area would be compensated for by higher electricity demand, fossil electricity imports from abroad in winter or increased electricity consumption.
In order to achieve a climate-neutral Switzerland, one of the four factors in the Kaya identity must be zero or the remaining product is offset with CO2-negative technologies such as the separation of CO2 from the air and its storage. Politicians must provide a decisive framework for this, as long as the nuclear power plants are still running.
According to a communication from Energiedienst Holding AG , the Swiss-German Energiedienst group achieved operating income of 532 million euros in the first half of 2020. In the same period of the previous year, 49 million euros less had been generated. The company attributes the growth primarily to higher prices in the sales business and increased electricity trading volumes.
Negative effects on the capital market, however, would have reduced the operating result (EBIT) year-on-year by 1 million euros to 12 million, said Energiedienst in the press release. Adjusted for non-operating effects, however, EBIT rose by 8 million to 24 million euros. "Operationally, the Energiedienst Group is doing better in the first half of 2020 than in the same period of the previous year", Jörg Reichert, CEO of Energiedienst Holding AG, is quoted in the announcement. "But the pandemic is not leaving the Energiedienst Group unaffected." The group expects that it will not be able to achieve its originally targeted operating result of 41 million euros for the year as a whole.
In terms of profit for the period, a year-on-year decline of 6 million to 8 million euros had to be accepted. According to the announcement, the background to this is a negative performance of the company's securities. It reduced the financial result year-on-year by 5 million euros to a loss of 3 million euros.
"The Energiedienst Group has been one of the first integrated energy companies in Germany and Switzerland to be climate-neutral since January 2020," explains Reichert. This climate neutrality is "the foundation of their business activities", it says in the announcement. According to her, the group was able to win several large business customers in the six months under review “thanks to its climate neutrality”.
Despite the Corona crisis, a total of 17 percent more electric vehicles hit the streets in Switzerland in the second quarter of the year than in the same quarter of the previous year. The plug-in hybrids recorded massive growth of 186 percent. In contrast, new registrations of all-electric cars fell by 12 percent. These are the main results of the current edition of the " E-Mobility Sales Review Q3 2020 " from PwC Autofacts and the strategy consultancy from PwC , Strategy & .
"During the crisis, the development of e-mobility proves that the path towards a strategically important market segment is not only being pursued, but is even being accelerated," comments Andreas Schlegel, automotive expert and director at Strategy & Switzerland . "With this tailwind, the charging infrastructure in Switzerland in particular should now be further expanded."
The current strong growth in plug-in hybrids could be an indication that Swiss consumers are not yet completely convinced of the practicality and range of pure e-cars, according to a media release . At the same time, it is now important for manufacturers to advance the technical development of batteries and thus create additional arguments for e-mobility.
In the same period, conventional drive technologies with diesel and gasoline recorded a significant drop in sales of 57.9 percent in Europe. In contrast, the European mobility segment remained comparatively unaffected by the lockdown measures: In the first half of the year, the number of newly registered e-vehicles in the ten markets examined rose by 25.6 percent. Plug-in hybrids saw a strong increase of 121 percent in new registrations. Across Europe, all-electric cars experienced an increase of 35 percent.
According to Schlegel, electric vehicles have proven to be an "island of stability" during the crisis. “Whether this trend is sustainable will only be shown when government subsidies expire.” Now retailers have to react and approach customers in a fundamentally different way than in traditional sales with combustion engines. mm
In a joint guest commentary for the “Tages-Anzeiger”, two leading representatives of the Swiss energy industry take a hard line against the Federal Council's plans to implement the Energy Strategy 2050. “Switzerland has the wrong instruments for promoting renewable energies. We have a suggestion on how this can be changed, ”write Thomas Sieber, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the energy company Axpo , and Gianni Operto, President of AEE Suisse , the umbrella organization for renewable energies and energy efficiency.
The proposal can be summarized in two words: Moving market premium. The Federal Council proposes a model with investment contributions for the energy law revision. The amounts are fixed in advance. From the authors' point of view, the problem is that it will hardly be possible to determine the most economically efficient contribution amount. Either there is unnecessary over-funding or too little funds are budgeted, which leads to the shutdown of plants that are no longer profitable. The sliding market premium, for which a “broad alliance of the Swiss energy industry” advocates, is already being used successfully in other countries. Production capacities would be put out to tender in a competition. "Those interested with the lowest offers are guaranteed a minimum remuneration for the electricity produced over a certain period of time – but only if the market price does not cover this." The sliding market premium supports precisely and only as much as necessary. It is therefore not a subsidy, but a fair price tag for a central service.
Since the expansion of renewable capacities in Switzerland is currently not profitable for electricity suppliers, Swiss energy suppliers and institutional investors invested abroad. At the end of 2019, the expansion of renewable capacities financed in this way had increased to 11.5 terawatt hours, almost a fifth of the total annual production in Switzerland.
"Ecological and sustainable action by the organizations has long since ceased to be desirable, but is expected," said the St.Gallen cantonal police in introducing a report on the authority's latest achievement. Specifically, the canton police now want to meet their responsibility for the environment by using a hydrogen car. So far, a total of 20 electric vehicles have been used by the St.Gallen canton police.
The new Hyundai Nexo, like electric cars, does not emit any harmful emissions, the press release said. Fast refueling and a range of 600 kilometers per tank are named as further advantages of the hydrogen car.
However, there are currently hardly any hydrogen filling stations in the region, explains the canton police. She identified Osterwalder St.Gallen AG as currently the only operator of a hydrogen filling station in Eastern Switzerland. The newly acquired Hyundai Nexo is therefore to be assigned to the traffic instruction stationed in St.Gallen.
Axpo has placed a so-called green bond via the digital capital market platform of the Zurich fintech Loanboox , according to a media release . The fixed-interest bond of CHF 133 million has a term of seven years.
Axpo intends to use the net proceeds from the bond to invest in renewable energies. The company highlights wind energy and photovoltaic projects. Overall, Axpo wants to use the Green Bond to “strengthen its position as the largest Swiss producer of renewable energies” and expand its group of investors, it is said.
According to Loanboox, Axpo is the first issuer to place a green bond entirely digitally via the debt capital market platform. "This first bond is proof that our digital process creates added value for all market participants," says Philippe Cayrol, CEO of Loanboox. "We are proud and happy to work with innovative customers and partners to create new standards in terms of transparency, pricing and allocation in the primary market – in Switzerland and Europe," he adds.
As part of the new order, 18 SBB locomotives of the latest generation will be modernized with traction converters from ABB, according to a press release. The Zurich-based and internationally active technology group has its Swiss headquarters in Baden and manufactures traction converters in its plant in Turgi AG. In 2014, ABB received an order from SBB to modernize locomotives with traction converters. With the follow-up order now received, ABB will modernize the entire Re 460 fleet. These are the locomotives of most intercity trains.
SBB is implementing a modernization program for the fleet, which will extend its service life by 20 years. The new traction converters and additional technical measures can save around 30 gigawatt hours of energy annually, "that's five gigawatt hours more than originally expected," says ABB. According to the report, these energy savings correspond to the “average electricity consumption of 10,000 Swiss households”. For this purpose, the power electronics based on the technology of the 90s are being replaced by energy-efficient, water-cooled IGBT traction converters (insulated-gate bipolar transistor). This retrofit and cooling systems operated with water instead of oil can reduce energy consumption.
"We are pleased that we are a partner in this major modernization project in the Swiss home market with our drive solution and that we are working closely with SBB to ensure that the vehicles continue to be operated in an energy-efficient manner," said Robert Itschner, Country Managing Director at ABB Switzerland.
Swiss Prime Site Solutions is developing a new “living space” for the Swiss Prime Investment Foundation, as stated in a press release by Swiss Prime Site Solutions . The foundation stone for the Riverside project was laid on July 10, 2020. The development is under the motto "Urban living – surrounded by nature". Construction work will begin in the northwest, where the area is located directly on the Aare and closest to the city of Solothurn. From there, the new quarter will develop in further construction stages to the south and east.
"Anyone who lives and works in the Riverside has, in addition to a chic apartment or a modern workplace with modern infrastructure, a multi-faceted quarter including local recreation on the Aare that meets the highest demands," explains Anastasius Tschopp, CEO of Swiss Prime Site Solutions. He speaks of a "lighthouse project for our client Swiss Prime Investment Foundation (SPA) and at the same time important for the entire Solothurn region".
Initially, 140 rental apartments are to be built directly on the banks of the Aare. The first tenants should be able to move in in winter 2021. More than 280 Swiss pension funds are both financiers and investors in the SPA. "We are currently carrying out the sixth emission for the SPA," said Tschopp. The subscription period lasts until July 22, 2020. The development program of the customer SPA currently amounts to around CHF 600 million and includes projects and real estate across Switzerland.
Many jobs have already been destroyed throughout Switzerland by the Corona crisis, others are in danger. The Swiss Energy Foundation ( SES ) sees the increased use of renewable energies, especially solar power, as a means of counteracting this. The SES has commissioned a study on this at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ( ZHAW ) in Wädenswil ZH. According to the press release on this, a “courageous solar offensive” can create thousands of new jobs in a short period of time. Jürg Rohrer, author of the study and head of the Renewable Energy Research Group at the ZHAW, states: "If we equip the most easily usable areas with solar systems, we need around 14,000 additional jobs." A total of 12,000 of them would be in the Installation of photovoltaic systems, which employees can carry out after only a short training period. In 2000, specialist planners required more specialist knowledge, for which, depending on their previous education, they would need around six months of further training.
The package of measures of the Energy Strategy 2050, which was adopted in a referendum in May 2017, provides for more energy efficiency and renewable energies to be used in the future energy supply. However, the implementation has so far only got off to a slow start. The SES proposal, which should also be included in the consultation on the revision of the Energy Act, should help to compensate for this deficit. Felix Nipkow, Head of Renewable Energies at SES, mentions a threefold benefit of the initiative: “Investing in solar energy now helps to achieve the climate goals, creates new jobs and strengthens the security of supply in the electricity sector.” The new Energy Act will only be able to come into force in a few years. A solar offensive would trigger investments today and create new jobs quickly. In this way, photovoltaics will become a job engine.
Around 10 percent of the electricity consumption of the metal goods factory Hans Eberle AG has come from in-house production since this summer. According to the company's media release, the heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting of the new company building, which was also completed this summer, are powered by clean energy from the newly installed hydropower screw in Ortsbach. The Francis turbine that was used earlier "got out" in 2014 after more than 100 years of operation, as the company reports. With this investment, Hans Eberle AG wants to underline its commitment to the sustainable use of resources and make a contribution to climate protection.
Hans Eberle AG, together with other members of the cooperative, uses the Ennendaner Ortsbach to produce its own electricity. The water is led from the Linth into the Ortsbach and has a constant flow of three cubic meters of water per second, which is quite sufficient for electricity production. The use of water power from the Ortsbach has a long tradition in Ennenda; it used to be used in the textile industry for weaving fabrics.
Four electric buses will be operating on RVBW Line 5 from March 2021. They will transport passengers between Baldegg via Baden train station to Ennetbaden. The new buses are equipped with innovative technology from ABB Switzerland. The canton of Aargau announced this in a media release as the customer for the public transport services.
The project will be carried out in close cooperation with ABB. The Federal Office of Energy has classified it as a flagship project worth supporting. The drive technology is developed at the ABB site in Turgi. The charging station is also from ABB. The batteries are produced in Baden.
A charging station will be installed at each of the two terminal stops. There buses can be charged in up to six minutes. The canton is contributing almost 1.5 million francs to the investment costs for the charging infrastructure.
RVBW line 8 between Neuenhof and Wettingen has been operated with an electric bus on a trial basis for two years since mid-December 2019. On these two lines, the RVBW wants to gain initial operational experience with the use of e-buses. In the future, RVBW intends to operate all city bus routes electrically. The switch from internal combustion to electric motors is to take place gradually.
The canton of Schaffhausen wants to take over the Rhine power station near Neuhausen itself in ten years. The concession for the power plant, which was built in 1948 and commissioned in 1950, expires at the end of 2030. Rheinkraftwerk Neuhausen AG (RKN) has applied for the extension of the water rights concession granted 80 years ago by the cantons of Schaffhausen and Zurich. However, the Schaffhausen government council, in coordination with the canton of Zurich, does not want to extend this, but rather declare the so-called reversal for the plant at the Rhine Falls and take over the plant itself. According to the canton's media release , this must be communicated to the previous operator ten years in advance, specifically by December 27, 2020.
District President and Energy Director Martin Kessler explains the procedure: “At the end of the concession, the canton will have the unique opportunity to take over the power plant. The economic and energy-political potential of the power plant is very interesting for the canton of Schaffhausen and offers considerable opportunities. Incidentally, the continuation of the hydropower plant corresponds to the energy strategy of the federal government and the canton and also makes sense from a climate policy perspective. "
This means that the added value resulting from the power plant remains in the canton. The RKN currently uses 29.9 cubic meters per second and produces around 45 gigawatt hours of energy per year. The energy production costs are extremely cheap at 2.9 cents.
With Pico, the company smart-me has developed a new charging station for electric vehicles. This connects to the cloud via the local WLAN or cellular network. This makes the station intelligent and can, for example, easily be coupled with a solar system, as a message shows. The operator can decide for himself when and at what price vehicles can be charged at the station.
Overall, Pico should make the installation of charging stations more attractive. As a result, previously undeveloped areas should also receive a charging infrastructure. In addition, electric cars are good buyers of locally produced solar power, emphasizes smart-me.
To finance the mass production of the charging station, smart-me started a swarm financing campaign on Kickstarter on July 8th. The company wants to collect over 50,000 francs.
A study commissioned by the canton and the city of Zurich compared the overall eco-balances of various vehicles and drive types. The results show that battery-powered vehicles generally enable a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per kilometer, provided they are fueled with low-CO2 electricity. However, electric vehicles are not yet perfect either. Their manufacture, for example, causes particulate matter emissions outside of Switzerland in particular.
As part of the study, the Zurich Mobility Environment Index (ZMU) was created, which weights the environmental indicators specifically for Zurich. The results of the ZMU show that the overall environmental pollution in urban areas can be reduced most effectively with battery electric vehicles.
The results are intended to form a basis for decision-making in the vehicle policy of the city and canton of Zurich. According to the information, the city council wants a consistent conversion of the vehicle fleet to alternative drives. This change is already under way. For example, ERZ Disposal + Recycling Zurich has been using electric delivery vans to empty waste bins on public land since July 2019. In April 2020, ERZ also put the first electrically powered waste collection vehicle into operation.
Around 600 employees from ASTRA and BFE will be able to move into the new seven-story building in Ittigen this month. The federal administrative center on the DETEC campus has housed various offices of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (DETEC) since 2006. The new building takes into account the space requirements that have increased since then and brings together previously scattered departments.
According to a press release , the wood-concrete hybrid construction by the Zurich architects Berrel Berrel Kräutler , which is certified according to the Swiss Sustainable Building Standards (SNBS), relies on the potential available on site. For example, the waste heat from a nearby data center is used to heat the building, and spring water is used for cooling. The project, originally named “Fitzcarraldo” by the architects, uses 100 percent renewable energies and does not cause any CO2 emissions.
In this modern administration building on the DETEC campus, we can bring together departments that were previously located in two locations in Bern, ”says ASTRA Director Jürg Röthlisberger. "That will simplify the collaboration, improve the team spirit and it can accelerate processes."
The municipality of Ittigen wants to do everything possible in the future so that the federal government feels at home there, emphasizes municipality president Marco Rupp. In Ittigen they are proud to be able to host most of the DETEC offices.
The Organizing Committee (OC) of the Limmattal Economic Podium has decided to cancel the next event planned for November 2020, according to a media release. The reasons are the "uncertain development of the coronavirus pandemic, the lack of planning security and concern for the health of the participants". The decision was made together with the main sponsors AXA , UBS Switzerland AG , energie360 ° , maneth stiefel AG and the Umwelt Arena Schweiz .
“We ran through all the scenarios. The decision was anything but easy for us, "OC President Fredi Pahr is quoted in the message. In it, WIPO also informs that the organizers had consulted with the sponsors and partners and that the majority of those questioned were in favor of rejection. “WIPO lives from networking – keeping your distance is difficult. We very much regret the cancellation, but the health of our participants has top priority, ”says Pahr.
The next WIPO event will therefore take place in November 2021. The exact date should be set in the coming days. The program planned for 2020 and with it the topic of "Limitless" will remain topical in the coming year. “We hope that we can win Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin again for the keynote. The clarifications are in progress ”, informs the WIPO, which was founded and is being carried out by the three patronage associations IHV Industrie- und Handelsverein Dietikon , Schlieren Chamber of Commerce ( WKS ) and the Association for Industry, Services and Trade Spreitenbach ( IDH ).
The Thun-based system manufacturer Meyer Burger wants to set up a production facility for solar panels in Linthal GL. The planned plant will have a capacity of 400 megawatts and employ over 100 people in three-shift operation, according to a statement from the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies ( VSE ).
The project is related to the planned realignment of Meyer Burger. The company based in Gwatt BE no longer wants to build and sell machines for the production of panels in the future, but instead wants to get into panel production itself.
The main argument in favor of locating the plant in Linthal is a solar park project on the Limmernsee in Glarus Süd, 1860 meters above sea level. A floating photovoltaic system with a capacity of 250 megawatts per year is to be installed there. The Limmern Solar Park (SPL) on the storage lake of Kraftwerke Linth-Limmern AG ( KLL , Axpo ) could generate 300 gigawatt hours of electricity and thus cover the needs of 75,000 to 100,000 four-person households.
There are other advantages that speak in favor of Glarus. In this way, not only is the inexpensive energy supply guaranteed by the Technischen Betriebe Glarus Süd ( tbgs ), but also the building land is available. In addition, the canton of Glarus is ready to set tax incentives. The plant also benefits from the efficient approval process, the rail connection for goods transport and the interesting Swiss market.
Complementary building envelope with Eternit facade panel, solar facade and wood.
Perfect integration of Eternit solar modules into the roof landscape.
The Chavacots campus has always been considered the house of the future, as around 900 new building envelope specialists are trained in the training center every year. The building from the 1970s had to be renewed in order to meet today's needs with a modern building infrastructure. The training center was rebuilt in just one year with the help of innovative and ecological Eternit products and solar solutions.
Eternit (Schweiz) AG, based in Niederurnen and with a 125-year success story, manufactures non-combustible roof and facade products made of fiber cement, which are characterized by high quality, durability and resistance. Roofing slate and facade panels made of fiber cement were used for the building envelope and solar solutions from Eternit were optimally integrated at the same time. The new mineral Eternit floor was used in the interior construction.
Sunskin roof and Sunskin facade – the Chavacots campus becomes an energy supplier Sunksin roof and Sunskin facade from Eternit are ecological system solutions for photovoltaic systems that meet all the requirements of the client, Verein Polybau, for a modern solar system. With their frameless, flat shape, the photovoltaic modules fit perfectly into the roof and facade landscape. They are suitable for almost any roof shape.
Complementary building envelope The solar modules on the roof were complemented by durable and robust roof slate elements made of Eternit fiber cement. A wooden facade was held on because the building regulations of the municipality of Les Paccots do not allow otherwise. However, this did not prevent the training building from being turned into a modern, ecological campus with Eternit products.
"The black tint of the vertical wooden slats on the storeys and the gray of the Eternit slabs of the base interact with the study building opposite for practical work and work with a logic of location and image," says the architecture office Atelier 78 proudly.
Eternit floor – the natural, mineral floor For the classrooms of the Chavacots campus, a floor was sought that could withstand a lot. A central question was to modernize the traditional building with new materials without losing its authenticity. The natural, mineral texture and the subtle tonality of the Eternit floor turned out to be the right choice. ■
numbers and facts
Client Polybau Association, Uzwil
architect Atelier 78, Châtel-St. Denis
Processor Facetec SA, Crissier (facade) B. Schnider SA, Clarens (roof) Helion, Yverdon-les-Bains (Sunskin roof and Sunskin facade) AGM Entreprise Générale Sàrl, Monthey (ground)
Materials used Sunskin facade – 48 modules Sunskin roof – 228 modules in connection Eternit roofing slate Natura Standard 40 × 40 / color: 6505 Facade panels Largo Nobilis 214 (634 m2) Eternit floor – trend collection Intense (262 m2)
Wir verwenden Cookies zur Unterstützung und Verbesserung unserer Dienste. Mit der Nutzung dieser Website erklären Sie sich mit der Verwendung von Cookies einverstanden. Weitere Informationen finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
