Switzerland covers 80 percent of its electricity needs with renewables, 2.9 percent with PV

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (Bundesamt für Energie; BfE) has published data on the composition of electricity consumed in the country in 2021. Due to imported and exported electricity, these are not identical to Switzerland's generation mix.
According to the data, 79.6 percent of the electricity consumed in Switzerland came from renewable sources, with 6.7 percent subsidized under the country’s feed-in tariff scheme (KEV) and 72.9 percent marketed otherwise. Overall, 71.6 percent of consumption was from hydropower, 2.9 percent from photovoltaics, 2.7 percent from biomass (and waste from biomass), and 2.4 percent from wind power. 18.5 percent of the electricity consumed came from nuclear power plants and only 1.9 percent from fossil fuels.
Nuclear power contributed a much higher proportion to Switzerland’s power production than to consumption: 28.9 percent were generated by nuclear power plants, 61.5 percent with hydropower, 7.7 percent with other renewables, and 1.9 percent fossil.
Due to the declaration obligation enacted in 2018 and applied comprehensively for the first time in 2021, proof of origin must be available for all electricity consumed in Switzerland; so-called »gray electricity« is not permitted. Since most neighboring countries do not have such a system, at least not for electricity from fossil or nuclear power plants, »substitute certificates« are used for electricity imports. Only for supply contracts concluded before November 1, 2017, electricity may still be marketed without a proof of origin.
© PHOTON