Geothermal Energy Use, Country Update for Switzerland

Abstract

In the last decades, several geothermal projects for district heating or balneological usage were realised in Switzerland. In contrast, «deep geothermal power» has not been produced yet. Through the events in Fukushima and the enacted nuclear phaseout, the perspectives of deep geothermal energy have been distinctively improved and the development has accelerated. The acceptance is currently high, but the expectations related to deep geothermal energy increased simultaneously. Deep geothermal energy is of high potential in Switzerland and could play an important role in Swiss energy supply in the future, but to achieve this goal, challenges of the most different kind must be tackled. Geothermal heat pumps, on the other hand, represent continuously a success story in Switzerland, with annual growth rates of 20 %.