Expansion in the field of renewable energy is necessary because we expect increasing electricity demand due to electrification – for example in the area of motorised private transport or in the heat supply using heat pumps. We also need to replace the electricity from our holdings in nuclear power plants, which we intend to shutter by 2034 at the latest.
Our strategy is aimed at expanding renewable energy and investing in different technologies in different regions of Europe. The increase in extreme weather conditions in Switzerland and around the world, as well as market-driven factors such as the limited availability of fossil fuels, require flexible and broad-based power production.
We have set ourselves the target of increasing power production from renewable energy by 100 GWh per year in the period 2020 to 2024. Last year, there were new investments representing 346 GWh. Wind power plants in particular will play an important role here:
- The Måkaknuten (94.6 MW) and Stigafjellet (30.1 MW) wind farms in Norway became operational in 2020. This also applies to the Borkum II offshore wind farm in Germany. In the latter, ewz has a stake of 25.8 MW.
- In 2023, ewz commissioned the three wind farms, Fontaine Le Sec, Le Groseiller and Des Noues in northern France, with capacities of 17 MW, 17 MW and 15.4 MW, respectively.
- In the next few years, we will add further wind farms in France as part of our cooperation with Ostwind International SAS.
- In 2023, ewz acquired the wind farm Ånglarna, Sweden, which has an output of 115 MW and is set to go into operation in 2026.
Compared to 2019, these investments enabled us to increase power production from wind farms by 561 GWh.
The wind farms will be financed by the CHF 200 million framework loan approved by city of Zurich voters in September 2017.
In 2021, power production from PV plants in the city of Zurich amounted to 30 GWh. We want to increase this figure to 120 GWh by 2030. We also aim to produce around 20 GWh/a of solar power on buildings owned by the city of Zurich by 2030.
The graphic below provides an overview of the power production from hydropower, wind power, biomass and solar installations in the last ten years. The illustration shows that power production from hydropower can fluctuate sharply from year to year. Over the past ten years, annual production has fluctuated between +30% and –26% of the average power production. 2022 was an exceptionally dry year. The expansion of the ewz wind farm portfolio has also resulted in a significant increase in the share of wind power in total power production.
