In this project we explore the evolution of the Swiss energy during roughly 100 years and determine the rate of the energy transition. The goal is to understand how the energy consumption evolved during a set period and analyse whether the energetic transition is on its way or not.
Please find below an easy informative and pedagogic tool that shows straightforward insight into the Swiss energetic climate and its past evolutions.

This first graph shows the percentage of each energy source in Switzerland over the years. Checkboxes on the top lets you choose between them. By clicking on one curve you will get more details on the production of energy coming from that source in Switzerland. Information includes maps, images as well as textual description of that source in Switzerland.

In the second graph, the energy measured :

  • For oil, coal, industrial waste and gas is in Tera joules.
  • For hydraulic and renewable energy, it is in MW / h (mega watts per hour).
  • For wood, it’s in m^3 (cubic meters).
  • For nuclear energy in % (percentage).

Since there are big differences between the different energies, it was necessary to choose units to have the best visualization for each one of them.

For oil, coal, industrial waste and gas, the second graph shows the total consumption for these energy in Switzerland.

For wood, hydraulic and “other renewable” energies, the second graph represent the energy production of those sources.

For nuclear, it represents the percentage of production of each plant over the years.

To summarise all the texts accessible through clicks on the different energy curves, this study showed that Switzerland energy sources have shifted over the year.
Coal consumption was, during the first half of last century, Switzerland first source of energy, its use has now nearly disappeared. Oil, that replaced coal in the second half of the 1900, looks to be following the same path with new energy sources being introduced. Moreover this studies shows that Switzerland still relies heavily on nuclear power, most of it being imported. This percentage, unlike the other non renewable energies ones, doesn’t have a downward trend and means that fossil energy is still highly used in the country.
Hydraulic remains the main type of renewable energy produced in Switzerland, with consumption from this source going as back as 1910 ! However with the rapid economical development and although many dams have been made, the country wasn’t able to increase its percentage of hydraulic energy over the years. New forms of renewable energy are growing (mainly wind powered), although limited amount of data meant that we weren’t able to have stronger conclusion.

Future looks however promising for Switzerland’s energy production as well as consumption. The future closing of all nuclear plants means that the country has to develop new energy production sources if it doesn’t want to rely on its neighbours imports. Such investments are being made in the wind power and solar industry, with an increasing number of cantons giving subsidy to individuals willing to install solar panel on their house roof for example.

Description on how our work was done can be found under this repository, including a readme that summaries all our researches with links to many of our sources as well as a notebook containing the data importation, cleaning, processing and textual description visible in the interactive interface above. Please refer to the readme and the notebook for more information on our work, the way this website was created is explained in the readme. Link to this website can be found repository can be found here. Finally please find information contact in the footer below.