Renewable Energy: When The World Is Not Enough

You may recall the opening scene in the James Bond Film, Goldeneye, where our hero sprints along the top of a dizzyingly high dam, bungee jumps to the bottom, and subsequently wreaks havoc on the top secret scientific installation within.

Some readers may be aware that the dam forming the backdrop to this daredevil scene, instead of being deep inside the former Soviet Union, is in fact located in the Val Verzasca in Southern Switzerland. Retaining over 100 million cubic meters of water, and generating 105 megawatts of electricity, the Verzasca dam is one of 527 hydro electric power plants which together provide more than 57% of the electricity consumed within Switzerland.

In the interest of bringing EcoWorldly readers first hand and up-close reporting on renewable energy I had originally planned to visit the dam this weekend in order to relate my experiences of bungee jumping off a 720 foot high hydro-electric energy installation. However, in the interests of meeting editorial deadlines I ultimately had to settle with a video from YouTube. It’s worth watching just to appreciate the sheer scale of this installation.

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Ultimately, it is the impressive nature of the size and scale of Switzerland’s renewable energy capacity which may lead to its future problems.

Clean energy production requires space, consuming natural (although renewable) resources above the ground instead of below the ground. With few rivers and valleys left to dam, Switzerland is one of many nations facing a future energy shortfall as population and consumption increases. With limited space for extensive solar and wind installations, nuclear power may be the only future option for Switzerland’s electricity to remain 95% carbon free.

The Swiss are already having intensive internal debate over future energy supply, with the possibility that additional fossil fuel based electricity production may be required to plug the gap, potentially undermining this excellent record on renewable energy.

Ultimately the challenge will fall to either energy conservation, or to new technologies - the former which is proving difficult to implement, and the latter being as yet unproven. Sometimes it does really seem as if “The World Is Not Enough.”

Photo courtesy of the Swiss Committee on Dams

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