The goal

Energy consumption has a great impact on our health and on our environment. At the same time, an ever increasing energy consumption is not always followed by an improvement in living standards. What it is worse, it can lead to negative externalities leading to human health problems, pollution, ressource overconsumption and climate change.

That is why the city of Zurich has set the 2000W goal while aiming at reducing its carbon footprint. It might seem too ambitious to you, but do not worry, we are hear to help you.

Energy mapping

This site shows a map with historical and real time data of energy generation in Switzerland. At any time, anyone can see how much power each nuclear power plant, wind turbine, hydro turbine and solar panel is producing, or how much energy it generated during a given period of time. And because energy measuring units can be somewhat abstract, we will give other measuring units to compare results with. This information aims to help everyone understand how energy production works and why the time chosen to consume energy has an impact on the environment. It is not the same to start the washing machine when wind is blowing and wind turbines are producing electrical power to make it run, than when Switzerland runs on nuclear or fossil fuel sourced electricity.

Monitor and share your experience to save money

Similarly, if your household counts generation capacity, such as solar panels or wind turbines, or energy efficiency systems, we invite you to log your installation on to the map. By doing so, other people will be able to see how you benefit from producing your own energy and you will be inspiring more members of your community to become their own electricity suppliers. It is also a great way to share advice and success stories. At the same time, on your profile tab, you will be able to see more personalised tips and simulation scenarios to help you adapt your electrical consumption to your own production, or to times when the grid's power comes from renewable energy. Clean Energy Mapping is ready to work with you and your traditional energy supplier to show in a unified space all the information you need to help you reduce your carbon footprint while saving some money.

Finally, let's not forget that reducing consumption is the best way to curve one's emissions and save money. For that reason, based on your needs and your personal situation, on your profile tab we will provide you with tips to help decrease your energy demand while maintaining your life standards.

About electric consumption

As clients of an electrical network, we consume both energy and power. Consuming energy means that we are actually using energy sources to produce work: heating, ventiation, cooling, running our electronic devices... This is the instantaneous power each of us needs. Consuming possible power means that at a given time, we may want to start consuming energy, and thus a power plant should be ready to provide the necessary power. Both services affect the kind of energy being used: if there is no sun, we will need to use nuclear or fossil fuel sources to cover the demand. However, even if the wind is blowing and the sun is shinning and this sources are able to cover a given demand at a certain time, if there is an increase in the demand (caused by a oven starting, for example) it will not be possible to make the wind blow higer or to make the sun shine more intensely. Only regulating power sources, such as hydro, nuclear power, gas and coal are able to ensure the stability of the system. Therefore, by needing a high power reserve, we are contribuiting to high backing capacities and therefore higher part of non renewable sources in the energy mix.