Swiss court approves wind park near Lausanne

The Swiss Federal Court has approved the land use planning for a wind project near Lausanne that is expected to supply between 55 GWh and 70 GWh of green electricity per year to the city from 2026 onward.

The court approval comes after 14 years of studies and planning and follows a municipal approval for the project's land use planning which was granted in 2015.

The EolJorat wind park will consist of eight turbines which will be installed in the Jorat woods on municipal land. The project will be implemented by developer Si-Ren SA which is wholly owned by the city of Lausanne. The power to be generated by the farm will be equal to the needs of between 50,000 and 65,000 people.

More studies related to the implementation of the project are being conducted currently and the search for suppliers is also in an advanced stage as the city seeks to put the facility into operation as soon as possible.

Wind power will help reduce electricity imports from German coal power plants and French nuclear plants in the winter. This is the time when wind turbines are the most productive and roughly two-thirds of the annual electricity from wind is generated, said Isabelle Chevalley, head of the Swiss wind energy association Suisse Eole.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!