Currently mainly the following energy carriers guarantee the energy supply in Switzerland:

• fossil fuels
      - motor fuels (petrol, aviation gasoline, diesel)
       - petroleum combustibles (mostly heating oils)
       - gas
  
• electricity
      - nuclear power
      - hydropower

Fossil fuels are primarily used for motor fuel and heating purposes. 55 percent of the electricity is recovered from hydropower and 40 percent from nuclear power plants. Other energy carriers, including renewable energy, at present play a secondary role:

• wood
• industrial wastes
• district heating
• coal
• other renewable energies (geothermal energy, sun, wind, biogas, biofuels)

Switzerland imports more than 80 percent of its energy carriers. Merely 20 percent of the required energy is produced in Switzerland from its own resources: two thirds of it from hydropower, one quarter by the conversion of nuclear fuels. From this large foreign dependence arises a high supply risk for our economy.

Ways out of the dependence on fossil fuels and imports

Switzerland must free itself from its dependence on fossil fuels. On the one hand because of the CO2 emissions and associated climate change. On the other hand, because petroleum and natural gas are subject to unpredictable price fluctuations and will be more expensive in the future, also, because their reserves are gradually shrinking.
Hydropower can barely still be expanded. The electricity production from renewable energy sources such as waste, waste water, biomass, photovoltaics (sun) and wind alone cannot close the supply gap upon abandonment of fossil fuels.
According to sustainability studies at ETH Zürich (Novatlantis Externe Seite. Inhalt wird in neuem Fenster geöffnet.), an improved energy efficiency in particular, could enable the supply of energy without fossil fuels. In this way, the ETH Zürich developed model of a 2,000 watts society strives to reduce the local per capita energy consumption of currently about 5,000 watts to 2,000 watts in the future.

Also, in order to replace the nuclear power in the longer term, research must be expanded in the field of renewable energy, particularly geothermal energy.

Energy supply and geology

Geology plays an important role in terms of energy supply:

• fossil energy sources such as petroleum, natural gas and coal originated in geological times and are extracted with geotechnical methods.
• uranium for nuclear fuel rods is extracted by mining uranium ore deposits and must be stored underground (geologically) after use.
• the heat from the Earth’s interior is used for geothermal energy by means of geotechnical methods.
• Photovoltaic technology is based amongst other things on the use of rare-earth metals which are obtained by mining ores.