Swiss vote for renewable energy

The Swiss people voted to change their national energy supply from nuclear to renewable power a few days ago. Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, 58.2% of the Swiss voters backed the government’s plan to ban nuclear power. This development indirectly follows the European Union’s effort to reduce the dependence on nuclear power as well as other European countries national energy policies. In Switzerland and according to an article from the New York Times (May 21, 2017 - “Swiss Voters Back Plan to Phase Out Nuclear Power”) one in five nuclear plants has to close by 2019, while the others will run without a fixed term, but only as long as they meet safety standards. Therefore, will there be a boom in renewable energy projects in Switzerland? Furthermore, how does the development of renewable energy in other European countries look like today?

Rejection of nuclear power in Europe

Ireland is - besides Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Poland, and Latvia - an example of a European country that never produced nuclear power on its own grounds. Mainly due to the resistance of huge parts of the Irish people Ireland did not step into the construction of nuclear power plants, which were on its government’s agenda in the 1960s and 1970s. Austria’s referendum of 1978 to not produce nuclear energy on its national territory is also remarkable. Not only because the referendums’ result was understood as a vote against the chancellor at that time, but also because of the fact, that the nuclear plant “Zwentendorf” was already built. Greece decided to stop the construction of its nuclear plant in 1983, which was decided to build by the Hellenic Parliament in 1976, due to safety concerns. The Danish parliament decided against the generation of nuclear power on its national ground in 1985. Early experimental plants were installed already in the late 1950s and shut down in 2003. The Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986 was the reason for the Italian people to vote in favour of the drive down all four national plants by referendum in 1986. In 2009 the Berlusconi government brought nuclear power in Italy back on the agenda but was cut down on the Fukushima catastrophe of 2011. After the shutdown of the Lithuanian nuclear plant in 2009, the government pushed on the re-entry but was stopped by its people vote in 2012. : European countries which banned nuclear powerCountryExit nuclear powerRemaining PlantsShare of national production*Sweden1980 / about-face 2009342% / 65 bn kWhBelgium2003238% / 26 bn kWhGermany2011825% / 45 bn kWhFrance2015 (50% reduction)1975% / 438 kwhSwitzerland2017534% / 23 bn kWhBulgarianot planned 1±33% / 16 bn kWhCzech Republicnot planned 232% / 27 bn kWhFinlandnot planned 230% / 23 bn kWhHungarynot planned 1±50% / 15.5 bn kWhNetherlandsnot planned 13.5% / 3.8 bn kWhSlovakianot planned 2±50% / 15.7 bn kWhSlovenianot planned 1±33% / 5.3 bn kWhSpainnot planned 520% / 57 bn kWhUnited Kingdomnot planned 821% / 70 bn kWh1*Source: World Nuclear AssociationThe European Union’s renewable energy policyThe rejection of nuclear power come along with the EU’s “Energy Strategy and Energy Union”. The EU’s policy is driven by three main objectives. Namely: sustainability, competitiveness, and security of the European energy market. Moreover, the EU highly depends on foreign suppliers. Half of its energy demand is imported at a cost of 350 bn euro per year. The “2050 Energy Strategy” is the main agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% until 2050. EU countries have also agreed on the Commission’s “2030 Energy Strategy”, which is in line with its long-term targets for 2050. This framework includes

• A 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels
• At least a 27% share of renewable energy consumption
• At least 27% energy savings compared with the business-as-usual scenario.

These mid- and long-term energy goals might sound ambitious, regarding the loss of potential energy generation as described above. How will Switzerland and the other European countries meet its energy demands in the future? Besides additional energy imports, how and where do the EU countries invest in new renewable energy generation?Find renewable energy construction projects with Building Radar! On the Building Radar platform, you are able to find 2.196 renewable energy projects, which were announced within the last 2 years alone!