Government wants to streamline energy transition

Attempts to increase the Grimsel Pass dam have been disputed, appealed and litigated for 20 years Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Swiss Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga wants to simplify the approval of dams and wind turbines by putting an end to the flood of appeals. In future, only one appeal should be possible per project.

By 2050 the government wants to further increase electricity production from hydropower and even increase electricity production from other renewable energies tenfold. But progress has been slow, with many large-scale expansion projects stuck in legal limbo for years.

Proponents of wind power, for example, complain that no fewer than 76 construction projects are currently blocked in court. The raising of the Grimsel Pass dam has been legally jammed for 20 years.

Sommaruga now wants to tackle these problems, according to a reportExternal link in the NZZ am Sonntag.

“The environment ministry wants to speed up the procedures for the construction of large hydroelectric and wind power plants so that these projects, which are important for the security of the electricity supply, can be realised more quickly,” spokeswoman Annetta Bundi told the paper.

This is not to be achieved at the expense of environmental protection and spatial planning, but by means of coordinated and shorter procedures.

Priorities

The concept is for the government, in dialogue with the relevant actors, to determine in an overarching plan which dams and wind power plants are priorities for the goals of the energy transition. A special approval procedure concentrated at a cantonal office should then apply to these plants.

In this way the land-use plan, building permits and other necessary decisions such as clearing permits or water rights concessions could be issued in one step. As a result, opponents would have only one opportunity to challenge the project at a cantonal level and, if necessary, in the federal court.

This should make it possible for large construction projects to be approved more quickly, without opponents having less chance of success, according to the NZZ am Sonntag. This is because the criteria for approving a project remain unchanged.