18% of the Swiss stream is undeclared
Where does Swiss electricity come from? Almost one-fifth of the electricity consumed in 2014 came from sources that cannot be verified. Behind this is mainly fossil and nuclear production from Europe.
Since 2013, electricity produced in Switzerland must be registered in a proof of origin system. Up to now, this declaration obligation has not applied to electricity from abroad. And this has had an impact: While in 2013 only 13 % of the electricity consumed in Switzerland came from "non-verifiable sources", in 2014 it was already 18%. This is shown by the latest data on the Swiss electricity supply mix from the SFOE.
The Swiss Federal Office of Energy attributes the significant increase to the fact that more electricity from fossil and nuclear sources is being procured on the European market - without purchasing the corresponding guarantees of origin.
The Federal Council wants to further increase transparency for electricity customers in the future and completely eliminate gray electricity, i.e. electricity from unknown sources. A full declaration obligation would be, according to the report "Electricity labeling: Full declaration obligation with guarantees of origin", which appeared in January.
The ball is now in Parliament's court: it could instruct the Federal Council to draw up a bill to implement a full declaration obligation with guarantees of origin for electricity.
