Policy selection in renewable energy transitions

When the Swiss people supported the new energy act in May 2017 it cleared the path to embark on a journey to restructure Switzerland’s energy system. The decision puts a lot of pressure on Switzerland because currently nuclear power constitutes more than a third of domestic electricity production. By 2035 all nuclear power plants will be off the grid as they reach the maximum running time in what they can be operated securely. The gap in electricity production will have to be replaced with other energy sources such as water, solar, wind or geothermal power. More generally speaking, Switzerland needs to change the general structure of its energy system in order to comply with the newly adopted targets. This thus raises the general question how and with what means can Switzerland achieve such a restructuring of its energy sector? As policy selection in a transitional setting is a dynamic process that involves multiple actors who need to accept and sometimes actively support policy instruments or the policy mix as a whole it is central from a societal and research perspective to shed light on the factors that lead to a desirable policy output. Besides this actor-centered perspective, different contexts or institutional settings may also affect the design of the policy mix that supports the Swiss energy transition. To shed light onto this crucial aspect of energy transitions, the overarching research question of this dissertation is thus what drives policy selection in the context of the Swiss renewable energy transition?

2019

dissertation

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