Award-winning energy projects
Companies prove time and again that they are innovative in the energy sector. Such organizations are awarded the Swiss Watt d'Or energy prize every year. The golden winners of the year 2021.
For the fourteenth time, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy has awarded the prestigious energy prize today. For this year's Watt d'Or, 64 applications were submitted and 24 entries were nominated for the final round. From these, the jury selected the winning projects in the four categories:
Energy Technologies Category: The path to a climate-neutral Switzerland leads via strong electrification, decentralization and also via increasing digitization of the energy supply system. Distribution grids play an important role in this. The overarching transmission grid with the large power plants, but also more and more solar plants, electric charging stations, heat pumps and, finally, the consumers' sockets "hang" on them. The classic solution to this has been the constant and expensive expansion of the distribution grids. A better, cheaper and safer solution is offered by the ETH spin-off Adaptricity. With its software solutions, it provides smart answers for planning and transparent monitoring of the grids and thus makes the distribution grids fit for the climate-neutral and renewable energy future.
Renewable energy category: High up in the Swiss Alps, the atmosphere is thinner, the solar radiation stronger and the snow reflects the light in winter. Ideal conditions for solar power production, especially in winter. Romande Energie, the energy utility company in western Switzerland, is taking advantage of the good alpine conditions to further expand its renewable electricity production and advance Switzerland's energy strategy. On the Lac des Toules reservoir in Valais, at 1,800 meters above sea level, it has therefore created a "power site". In addition to energy from hydropower, the reservoir now also supplies solar power from a floating alpine solar power plant. For the plant, which is unique in the world at this altitude, Romande Energie has successfully solved many technical problems together with ABB Switzerland. So successfully, in fact, that other power utilities in Switzerland and abroad are already showing an interest.
Energy-efficient mobility category: Hydrogen will play an important role in the global climate-neutral energy supply. This is now undisputed. Many countries and also the EU are therefore in the process of defining comprehensive hydrogen strategies. This is not only about CO2-free supply security, it is also about a market worth billions for hydrogen and other climate-friendly technologies. Switzerland is playing in the hydrogen champions league thanks to a globally unique initiative. Hydrospider AG, Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility AG, H2 Energy AG and Förderverein H2 Mobilität Schweiz are building the world's first commercial cycle for renewable hydrogen in Switzerland. This highly committed network of companies is driving supply and demand for renewable hydrogen in parallel, entirely without government subsidies. The business model includes hydrogen trucks, refueling stations, and production and logistics of the renewable hydrogen. Today, there are about 50 hydrogen trucks in Switzerland, soon there should be more than 1,000. Foreign countries are also watching this development with great interest.
Category building and space (two winners):
Walter Schmid, energy pioneer and president of the Umwelt Arena Schweiz foundation, and his son, architect René Schmid of René Schmid Architekten AG in Zurich, have opted for energy self-sufficiency in their new development in Männedorf. The entire annual energy requirement of the superstructure is self-produced with photovoltaic systems on the facades and roof and additionally with wind turbines. Nevertheless, the buildings are not energy self-sufficient, but are connected to the electricity and gas grids. Half of the self-produced electricity is consumed by the tenants directly on site. The rest is transported in the power grid to a power-to-gas plant, converted to renewable gas and stored in the natural gas grid for electricity and heat production in winter. The interconnected grids thus provide seasonal storage of self-produced energy. A concept that enables a completely renewable and CO2-free energy supply and makes an active contribution to reducing the winter electricity gap.
Most older office buildings in Switzerland are energy guzzlers. Energy-efficient renovations cost a lot of money, often take a long time, and the complicated building technology makes building owners uneasy. In St. Gallen, there is a freshly renovated office building from the 1960s that dispels these concerns. Here, Beat Kegel's energy concept - "Kegel's Rule" for short - was implemented together with the St. Gallen real estate company Mettiss AG. As a result, the renovation could be realized very quickly and cost-effectively, and the building easily achieved the passive house standard. This is thanks to a cost-effective low-tech ventilation and heating system with prefabricated parapet elements and compound ventilators in the doors. The new tenant, the University of St. Gallen, is very satisfied with the indoor climate and energy costs. "Kegel's rule" could set a precedent in the refurbishment of other office buildings as well as in residential construction and new buildings.
The Watt d'Or award ceremony will be held on a very small scale due to the pandemic situation. However, it will be broadcast via live stream on the Internet (www.wattdor.ch) transferred.
