Low-carbon fuels are essential where direct electrification is difficult, especially in aviation, shipping and the chemical industry. But they are not automatically clean, cheap or secure. Their climate benefit and supply depend on where they are produced, which electricity powers...
Solar panels today cost less than a thousandth of what they did in the 1970s, while nuclear power plants costs have largely remained constant. This massive difference in cost trajectories is not random; but can be explained by learning rates....
Cars are responsible for a major and growing share of CO₂ emissions in Switzerland, and the country has just missed its goal of increasing the share of plug-in vehicles to 50% by 2025. Yet there seems to be no comprehensive...
Densification is hailed as the key to the sustainable transformation of our cities. However, its implementation through the pursuit of “building new and better” is actually hurting the environment more. Our latest study reveals flaws in the sustainability of modern,...
In discussions about the net-zero energy transition, many sectors are often labelled “hard-to-abate”—but what does that really mean? The term has no agreed definition, leading it to be applied loosely and potentially be used as an excuse to delay decarbonization...
Every two years, the ETH Energy Science Center hosts a summer school about energy. This year, the focus was “navigating the transition in an insecure world”. Energy Blog editors Lingxi Tang and Jonathan Peel were among the 60 attending researchers...
In a prospective life cycle assessment, we assessed and compared the environmental impacts of technological options to decarbonise the shipping sector, comparing e-ammonia, e-methanol, e-LNG, e-FT diesel and ship-based carbon capture and storage. The findings highlight that while no single...
How can the Bündner Rheintal, an urban-industrial cluster, achieve cost-effective decarbonization despite having CO₂ emissions per capita that are two times higher than the Swiss average? Researchers from Empa, in collaboration with the Canton of Graubünden, regional energy providers, and...
Dr. Iryna Doronina Senior Researcher at ETH in collaboration with PLUS, for the first time in Ukraine, mapped all energy infrastructure in Ukraine (more than 1700 units), identified energy sector damages and calculated detailed renewable energy potential by region, using...
Cities and their urban transformations are critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Our new research shows that European cities tend to prioritize environmental and technical issues, such as biodiversity or transportation, while their residents prefer issues linked to their...
Electricity autarky is a sensitive topic in Swiss politics, with electricity supply in winter often being the centre of attention. The bill on a secure electricity supply, voted on June 9, 2024, introduced a new provision aiming to limit net...
For Anthony Patt, Europe’s ambitious plans for a hydrogen economy may be too ambitious, tipping the scales towards the interests of the fossil fuel industry, rather than energy consumers and the climate. Switzerland should be careful before jumping fully on...
