Electricity supply mix: Where the energy comes from

The data on the Swiss electricity supply mix is collected annually and is available on www.stromkennzeichnung.ch in the Electricity Labelling Cockpit (cf. Cockpit) has been published. The data, which has just been published by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), provides information on electricity deliveries in 2020. As the SFOE emphasizes, full declaration has been mandatory for electricity labeling since 2018. This means that electricity of unknown origin, so-called gray electricity, is only permissible in exceptional cases and until the 2020 delivery year. Since most neighboring countries do not issue certificates of origin for electricity from conventional power plants, Switzerland has introduced so-called substitute certificates. This means that coal-fired electricity from abroad can be declared as such and is no longer grouped under gray electricity. The share of coal-fired electricity imported via such certificates of substitution halved again between 2019 and 2020 to a quarter of a percent, the SFOE writes.

• 66% of the electricity supplied in 2020 was used in Large hydropower plants was produced (same as in the previous year, 2019: 66%). 76% of the hydropower supplied was produced in Switzerland (2019: 73.7%).
• 19% (2019: 19.1%) of the electricity supplied was used in Nuclear power plants produced. This is lower than the share of nuclear energy in the Swiss production mix (32.9%). As in the previous year, the nuclear energy supplied came almost exclusively from Switzerland.
• 1% (2019: 4.3%) of the electricity supplied came from non-verifiable energy sources. With the introduction of the full declaration in January 2018, non-verifiable energy sources are no longer permitted with the exception of multi-year supply contracts concluded before November 1, 2017 (for which a transition period applies until the 2020 supply year). As expected, the share of non-verifiable energy sources has decreased as a result of the full declaration. Electricity-intensive companies procure so-called substitute certificates for electricity from fossil and nuclear sources from European power plants for which no regular guarantees of origin are issued (see above).
• The share new renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, and small hydropower) continues to increase, from 8.4% (2019) to 10.3% in 2020, of which about 87% was produced in Switzerland and a good two-thirds was supported by the feed-in tariff system (ESV).
• In small quantities, the electricity supplied in 2020 came from fossil energy sources(1.8%, previous year 2%).

Source: SFOE

Production mix is not the same as supply mix

According to SFOE data, 58.1% of electricity in Switzerland is produced from hydropower, 32.9% from nuclear power, 2.3% from fossil fuels and just under 6.7% from new renewable energies (= Swiss production mix 2020). However, as is well known, not only electricity from Swiss production is supplied to the sockets here: There is a lively trade with foreign countries, where electricity is exported and imported. Therefore, the Swiss production mix does not match the average composition of the electricity supplied (= Swiss supply mix).

In order to create transparency about the supply mix of each electricity supplier and thus enable consumers to make an informed decision in favor of a particular electricity product, Swiss electricity suppliers have been required by law since 2005 to disclose the origin and composition of the electricity they supply. The declaration is always made retrospectively, based on the data of the previous calendar year. Since 2006, these figures have had to be disclosed to all customers with their electricity bills, as the SFOE emphasizes. Since 2013, the data has also been published on the internet platform www.stromkennzeichnung.ch published.

Source: SFOE