Energy
Ever since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, the phasing out of nuclear power in Germany and Switzerland is pretty much a done deal.
Municipalities, counties, and regions are developing power supply concepts in cooperation with their citizens with a high proportion of renewable energies.
Residents, skilled craft businesses, and local communities in the Upper Rhine Valley have been concerning themselves with the use of renewable energies for over 40 years now.
Citizens’ initiatives have taken the future of solar-powered energy firmly into their own hands, and annual solar trade fairs motivate them to invest their own money in renewable energies!
Wind turbines, solar roofs, and small water power stations jointly funded by citizens have sprung up in addition to private solar roofs and biogas plants. Geothermal facilities are also a source of eco-friendly energy.
In 2011, a regional parliament already made the ambitious resolution to satisfy 100% of the region’s power needs and 50% of their heating needs with renewable energies by 2030.
Today, several villages in the Rhine Valley already produce 40 – 100% of their household electricity with solar power systems, and other villages in the Black Forest already produce up to 300% of their needed power with highoutput, weak-wind turbines.