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Welcome to our page with data for Switzerland

ELECTRICITY GENERATION
 
No geothermal power installations have been reported for Switzerland.
 
DIRECT USES
 
Total thermal installed capacity in MWt:
1,060.9
Direct use in TJ/year
7,714.6
Direct use in GWh/year
2,143.1
Capacity factor
0.23
 

The use of geothermal energy for direct-use has increased substantially, mainly with the installations of geothermal heat pumps (GHP). GHP have increased at rates up to 17% per year, with borehole heat exchangers-coupled systems dominating. Novel applications such as using warm tunnel waters and energy piles have been developed. In just 2009 along, over 2,000 km of borehole heat exchangers (BHE) have been drilled. The majority of the BHEs have been installed in new buildings, but the number of retrofits is increasing.

The second largest use of geothermal energy is with thermal spas and wellness facilities. The proportion of the various uses in terms of energy use (GWh) is 73.9% for HE and horizontal loops, 13.6% for balneology, 10.4% using shallow groundwater, 1.0% using geostructures (energy piles), 0.6% using deep aquifers which includes using tunnel water. With about one GHP installed on the average every square km, this is the highest concentration in the world.

One geothermal district heating system is located on Riehen, Canton Basel city. A recent change in governmental policy was the introduction of a feed-in tariff and a risk coverage system in 2008.

The geothermal use by the various categories is:

2 MWt and 14.7 TJ/yr for individual space heating;
3 MWt and 33.5 TJ/yr for district heating;
1.4 MWt and 11 TJ/yr for air conditioning;
0.1 MWt and 0.3 TJ/yr for snow melting;
34.9 MWt and 1,045.4 TJ/yr for bathing and swimming;
2.4 MWt and 7.7 TJ/yr for using tunnel water;
1,017.1 MWt and 6,602 TJ/yr for GHP.

The total for the country is 1,060.6 MWt and 7,714.6 TJ/yr
 

Taken from the paper by John W. Lund, Derek H. Freeston, and Tonya L. Boyd: "Direct Utilization of Geothermal Energy 2010 Worldwide Review"; published in Proceedings of the World Geothermal Congress 2010, Bali, Indonesia, 25-29 April 2010