Swiss Energy Commission deliberates risk guarantee for geothermal projects

Drilling rig on site at Satigny/ Geneva, Switzerland (source: Geothermie 2020)

Carlo Cariaga 1 Mar 2023

The Energy Commission of the National Council of Switzerland has expressed the intent of creating a risk guarantee policy for geothermal energy projects. This is a matter that was appealed for by the representatives of the energy industry, finance, and politics at the connect4geothermal forum held in Bern, Switzerland on September 2022.

At the end of February, the Energy Commission dealt with various energy generation technologies as part of the revision of the Energy Act. Although geothermal was mentioned in the deliberations, the Commission deemed that the topic was complex and needed more time, thus was not integrated into the current revision.

However, the Commission intends to continue to discuss this topic, in particular a possible safe-guarding of investments in the context of geothermal prospecting. The Commission acknowledges that there is a discovery risk associated with geothermal development, in particular because of the little history of Switzerland in the field of prospecting for oil and gas.

There have been multiple efforts in the recent years to identify and characterize potential geothermal resources in different regions of Switzerland. More recently, a seismic campaign was initiated as part of the Magglingen geothermal project in Bern.

Source: Geothermie Schweiz