Work package 2

Research focus on midlands

Work package leader:Prof. Tobias Schmidt, ETH Zurich

WP2 has a special focus on the rural areas in the Swiss midlands to look at potential design, operation, and ways to foster the uptake of multi-energy there. A detailed technical and socio-economic analysis will lead to scenarios with high shares of locally sourced renewable energy. WP2 covers the topics of supply-demand matching for rural entities and communities, the role of new technologies (woody and agricultural biomass, battery storage, power-to-x, and electric transportation, including agricultural machinery and transportation), distribution grids, and microgrids. Since activities in rural Swiss area are highly based on initiatives of small enterprises, the topics of financing, new business models, coordination of actors, and policy are particularly important to catalyse change.

(start: M1, duration: 48 months)