Four new competence centres to drive the energy transition
To boost innovative approaches towards implementing Switzerland’s Energy Strategy 2050, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) launched the funding programme SWEET. ETH Zurich is the leading house of the consortium “PATHFNDR”, one of four consortia selected during the first call.
The guiding theme of the first call of SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition) was “Integration of Renewables into a Sustainable and Resilient Swiss Energy System”. ETH Zurich is the leading house of one of four consortia: PATHFNDR (PATHways to an Efficient Future Energy System through Flexibility aND SectoR Coupling). The PATHFNDR consortium focuses on flexibility and sector coupling. Besides ETH Zurich, teams from external pageEmpa, external pagePSI, external pageZHAW, external pageHSLU, external pageUniGE, external pageEPFL, and also from over 30 industry partners will investigate how the Swiss energy system has to be transformed to absorb a much higher share of renewable energy sources.
In seven work packages, the PATHFNDR consortium will answer the following fundamental research questions:
- What will an efficient, flexible, resilient, cost-competitive, and sustainable Swiss energy system by 2050 look like?
- What legislative and regulatory frameworks should be adopted to enable the transition to the system identified, including the needed incentives for flexibility providers as well as sector coupling?
- Which business models and commercial value propositions should be developed to value needed flexibility and sector coupling?
- What measures are necessary to ensure acceptance and participation of citizens and their organizations?
- How can pilot and demonstration projects of flexible energy systems at the district / village / city scale be best exploited to increase our understanding of technical and socio-economic aspects as well as to trigger wider adoption?
These questions will be answered by building upon a strong research team with wide-ranging experience in the relevant technological, economic, regulatory, and social disciplines. The consortium will leverage existing state-of-the-art modelling and demonstration platforms that will be expanded throughout the project. Starting from this strong foundation allows the consortium to reach a unique in-depth understanding of the energy transition and to find concrete paths to an efficient, flexible, and sustainable Swiss energy system by 2050.