The energy transition is a SWEET deal

This talk will introduce the SWICE project, a 8-years research project coordinated by EPFL and sponsored by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s SWEET programme on accelerating innovation for Switzerland’s 2050 Energy Strategy.

By forming a consortium involving 10 Swiss Higher Education Institutions and 30 partners from the public and private sectors, the SWICE project aims to identify and quantify the energy saving potential and opportunities for increased quality of life that can emerge from future urban scenarios involving new modalities of mobility, of living and of working. Towards this end, it brings together a range of different disciplines from geography, sociology, psychology and economics to mobility and building engineering. The project also involves collaborations with living labs, that serve as core observation spaces for research activities as well as opportunities to demonstrate how to turn the latter into action.

In times of overlaying global crises, characterised, for example, by rising energy costs and decarbonisation requirements, Switzerland could become more resilient with more decentralised renewable energy generation in Switzerland. However, this process has a lot of important stakeholders, such as Swiss citizens and voters, energy consumers, and (future) energy producers. 

We argue, besides this multitude of roles, individuals and their energy preferences are characterised by their local circumstances. One of these is area characteristics, as different areas have different potentials for different renewable energies and distinct social influences among inhabitants of these areas. Using data from a large-n survey of Swiss inhabitants, we present findings on how dwellers of different Swiss regions (along the degree of urbanity and actual locations) vary in their taste for renewable policies. Understanding these differences allows energy planners or modelers to increase their predictions' realism and assists project developers in placing different renewable energy technologies.