How dependent is the swiss energy transition on developments in its neighboring countries?

The Baseline (S0) scenario represents the status quo of the Swiss legislative and regulatory framework and assume the lifetime of 50 years for nuclear power plants. Developments of neighboring countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy) follow the ENTSO-E TYNDP “Global Ambition” scenario. We evaluate the impact of electricity generation capacities in the neighboring countries with the following three scenarios:

• The Renewables Overcapacity (S1-a) scenario adds 50% more wind and solar power generation capacities to the neighboring countries, compared to the Baseline scenario.
• The Gas instead of Renewables (S1-b) scenario reduces wind and solar power generation capacities in the neighboring countries by 50% compared to the Baseline and instead adds an appropriate number of gas-fired power plants with CCS.
• The Nuclear instead of Renewables (S1-c) scenario also reduces renewable capacities but adds nuclear power to the neighboring countries.

In addition, to evaluate the impact of cross-border electricity trading, we developed two additional scenarios:

• The Reduced Electricity Trading (S2-a) scenario has 50% lower Net Transfer Capacities for trading with all neighboring countries, compared to the Baseline scenario
• The Increased Electricity Trading (S2-b) scenario has 100% higher Net Transfer Capacities

Please note that in the Interactive Results Viewer the results are available only for the Energy Topic “Future electricity system”