Swiss approve net-zero climate law

swissinfo.ch

27 points·doener··5 comments

Not a word about nuclear... Afaik new licenses can't be given for building new reactors, so gradually nuclear power will decrease, being replaced by a ton of solar&wind that'll affect country's landscape. Instead of investing in both they tend to put most eggs from one basket(fossils) to another, reducing diversification. In the meantime China is building like crazy both nuclear plants and nuclear waste reprocessing plants...

Switzerland has 3GW of nuclear generating capacity (currently outputting 1.7GW as of this comment) but also 12GW of hydro, 3GW of solar, and 5GW of hydro storage (per https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/CH). They also have >5GW of interconnects with other neighboring grids (Austria, Germany, France, and Italy).

Nuclear is expensive and unnecessary to meet their target. Whether the Swiss are content with renewables across their lands is up to the Swiss voters (from a land use compatibility perspective), and based on the results, the majority seems to approve.

You could have just said 12GW hydro and left it at that.

Their baseline power is supplied.

I don't know about Switzerland but a lot of dams in the US are highly seasonal and also restrict output for flood control or irrigation purposes.

"The government and all major parties, except for the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, had called to vote in favour of the bill."

Imagine having more than two political parties...

Still, this seems like genuine uplifting news.

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