Lucerne turns to energy from the lake
Lucerne - In future, the city of Lucerne and the utility company ewl intend to cover more than half of the city’s heating requirement using energy obtained from Lake Lucerne and district heating networks. Five potential sites for the lake energy centers have now been chosen.
The city of Lucerne and the local energy supplier energie wasser luzern (ewl) are seeking to jointly create opportunities through which energy obtained from Lake Lucerne could be used to cover a portion of the city’s heating requirement. As detailed in a press release, the switch to lake-based energy is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by the use of gas, oil, petrol, diesel and kerosene to zero by 2040.
In order to achieve this aim, the partners have considered potential sites for energy centers that would be largely located underground. From a selection of 100 possible locations, five emerged as genuine options in the preliminary process: three locations are situated on the left bank of Lake Lucerne, with one each located on the right bank and in the Würzenbach supply area.
An extensive analysis demonstrated that these locations were the most suitable options. In addition to energy yield, this process took into account aspects such as ownership structures and criteria including nature conservation and social impact. Urban planning and feasibility studies are expected to be available midway through 2025. Where conflicts of interest are deemed to be excessive, alternative locations will be sought.
«It was therefore of vital importance to involve municipal and cantonal specialist departments as well as various nature conservation and planning organizations in the search for suitable locations», comments Martin Arnold, member of the management board and head of implementation at ewl, in the press release. «In this way, we were able to address a range of interests and coordinate them with one another», he adds.
